


Dark Descent

by PyramidHead316



Series: The Dark Descent universe [1]
Category: Silent Hill
Genre: AU, F/F, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-26
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-02-10 11:11:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 29
Words: 205,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2022957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PyramidHead316/pseuds/PyramidHead316
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One ordinary afternoon, Alessa's world is turned upside down when she finds herself in a dark, nightmarish world of horrors and demons. Buried secrets are brought to light as the dark powers of Silent Hill return to reclaim their Holy One.</p><p> </p><p><b>Ch. 24:</b> Haunted house time!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue - World of Darkness

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Silent Hill is owned by Konami. No profit is being made off of this fic.
> 
>  
> 
> So, readers of fanfiction.net will realize that this fic has been going on there for several years. I have decided to post it here. I am hoping that the readers here will have some useful suggestions, unlike at fanfiction.net, where the early reviewers have long since departed, or departed from the fandom. (Not that I blame them. I have nothing against them whatsoever. And I appreciate the fans I still have left.) This fic is in need of revision. However, I am not going to make any major changes until I see how the readers here react to it! So don't worry, the fic won't be changing constantly. I want to see what suggestions you readers give, before revising the fic.
> 
> This is an AU premise, so things aren't going to be exactly the same as they are in the games. Keep that in mind. Of course Alessa is going to use a false name!

**Prologue - World of Darkness**

_Believers hearken to me!_  
_Twenty score men and_  
_seven thousand beasts._  
_Heed my words and speaketh them_  
_to all, that they shall ever be_  
_obeyed even under the light of_  
_the proud and merciless sun._

_I shall bring down bitter vengeance_  
_upon thee and thou shalt suffer_  
_my eternal wrath._

_\- The Crimson Ceremony_

 

It was a strange place, the realm that waited beyond the conscious mind. The veil of unreality fell over one’s vision as you entered the clutches of deep sleep, obscuring the landscape of one’s psyche with a haziness that confounded your sense of what was real. And yet, that also made the jumbled mix of images nestled in your subconscious incredibly vivid while they lasted. 

To those whose dreams were for the most part unpleasant, this peculiarity was a blessing; a chance to explore a range of scenarios, some mundane, some bizarre, without the limitations and consequences of the real. 

To others, whose twilight fantasies often came in the form of horrors that left them feeling haunted even after awakening, it was a curse. Everyone had nightmares, there was no denying that. But these were the people whose nightmares outnumbered and outmatched ordinary dreams in sum and clarity. To them, the scope of the fear and dread and sheer terror inherent to these incredibly lifelike visions was such that they would rather not dream at all, if it would allow them to escape the torment of waking up in a cold sweat nearly every night from some terrifying tableau. 

Alessa Summers was one such individual. 

Alessa knew she was dreaming. The odd sense of displacement combined with the swirl of jumbled images could only be found in a place beyond the limits of one’s physical reality. The mosaic seemed to bend and warp with every passing moment, until a disturbing red haze fell over her vision, as if she were seeing through a shroud of flowing blood vessels. 

Finally, the images coalesced into a lone scene that was startlingly familiar to Alessa’s eyes. She blinked her eyes rapidly as she adjusted to her new surroundings and realized exactly where she was. 

The hallway was dark and foreboding, but Alessa would recognize it anywhere. It was the second floor of her old home. 

It had been over a decade since she last saw this place in real life. The house that she and her parents had lived in for the last two years of her childhood had burned had down long ago along with rest of their old lives. And though she still thought of it occasionally, it was never with much fondness. The end result of their stay there was the primary reason, obviously. But more than that, she had never really felt at home in this place. It was old and it was creepy and the place had never really recovered from its former owner’s influence. Alessa was certain had she given it deeper consideration, her mother never would have agreed to settle there once that owner offered them the house as a belated anniversary gift to Alessa’s parents. 

Needless to say, it’s presence in Alessa’s dreams was hardly appreciated. 

The worn floorboards creaked under her feet as she walked down the hallway, taking one cautious step at a time. She shivered as a wintry feeling passed through her; she was barefoot, and the floor was ice cold. Looking down, she saw she was wearing a long sleeved navy blue shirt with a white collar and a matching blue skirt that stopped several inches above her knees. Alessa frowned. She remembered the outfit from her childhood. The same person who had given her parents this home had bought the dress for Alessa’s sixth birthday. The little girl hated it, but her mother thought it was cute, and like all children, she had no choice but to what she was told and wear the damn thing. Granted, she probably would have hated anything her grandm…the owner of this place gave her. 

Even after all these years, Alessa knew the layout of the home inside out. So as she slowly turned the doorknob to her old room, she expected to find the familiar sight of her childhood refuge. Instead, the door opened to a sight that left her speechless. 

Awaiting her on the other side of the doorway, where her bedroom should have been, was an amusement park. 

_What the hell?_ Alessa thought, staring unblinkingly at the surreal sight. She tentatively took a few steps forward to see if she was really seeing this in front of her. It was a mistake. As soon as she set foot outside the hall, she was startled by the slam of the door behind her. She swirled around only to be faced with an imposing brick wall – the doorway she came through had completely disappeared. 

Alessa’s heartbeat started to quicken as she realized she was stuck in this place now. _Well, this dream’s off to a pleasant start_ , she thought sarcastically. And what a place for it to start in. She glanced around at her surroundings and felt herself grow cold at what she saw. It was true she was in an amusement park, but this was an amusement park unlike any she had ever seen. Save for the lights of some nearby shops, the area was pitch black; not a star to be found in the sky. An ominous looking mist swirled around her, making it difficult to see beyond a few meters ahead of her, in any given direction. The ground felt rough on her bare feet, and she saw the concrete was coated with some crusty reddish mixture of rust, mold, and something else she didn’t want to think about. She couldn’t help but quiver in dread. 

It’s only a dream, she told herself firmly. This wasn’t real; none of it was. It couldn’t harm her. Nonetheless, that didn’t make it any less intimidating. 

As she strolled through the menacing locale, Alessa thought she heard the sound of footsteps. She tensed with palpable nervousness. What kind of person could she expect to find in a place like this? The noise grew louder and it was clear she wasn’t imagining things. Something was near. She thought about turning back, but where could she go? 

The unknown being approached in the darkness. The fog shifted ever so slightly to accommodate the intruding mass, and as the vaguest of forms became discernible, Alessa realized that this was no man or woman. No human being could be as large as this thing was. 

She felt her heart almost stop when she saw it. 

Monstrous didn’t even begin to describe the lumbering beast that emerged from the shadows. The creature was huge, towering over Alessa by at least four feet. Its shape was vaguely humanoid, but its arms were absolutely enormous, more than compensating for the creature’s slim torso. Shambling on two slender legs, Alessa barely had time to react before it lashed out with one of its huge sandbag-shaped arms. Acting on pure instinct, she dropped to avoid the swipe, glancing around to see a long blade retreat back into the creature’s arm.

Alessa quickly ran from the demonic aggressor. She tried desperately every door she came across as the monster gave pursuit. Locked door after door greeted her effort to find an escape, and she was beginning to despair until she finally found a thick metal door that was open. She wasted no time in going through.

Only when she was sure she was in the clear did Alessa allow herself to relax. She looked around for any signs of monsters, but the area was dead silent. She breathed a deep sigh of relief. That was far too close for comfort. 

It was only when she really took notice of where she was that Alessa realized she hadn’t really escaped the danger. Far from it. 

If the previous area was a precursor of what lay ahead, then this a full blown manifestation of horrifying nature of this place. The area before her resembled something out of a Dante-esque nightmare. Numerous cage-like boxes were planted into the ground, and inside them were what looked like human bodies. They were dressed in what appeared to be tan colored ceremonial robes, now stained heavily by a multitude of bodily fluids. The charred state of their skin and the stench emanating from the corpses left little doubt that they had been burned to death. 

“My God,” Alessa murmured. She brought a hand to cover her mouth and nose, lest she be overcome by the nauseating feeling building in her stomach. What in God’s name was this place? It was almost like Sil…the _incident_ in her home town all those years ago. But that couldn’t be…

Could it? 

The clang of her footsteps echoed in the eerie silence. The concrete from before was gone, replaced by sheets of rusted metal linked together to create a makeshift floor. Entire sections of it were missing in some places, allowing Alessa to peer into the darkness below. She could discern nothing save a bottomless void, and she shuddered to think what would happen if she fell. 

As macabre as those things were, perhaps the worst example of the nightmare Alessa now occupied lurked behind a nearby bench. Alessa wasn’t sure what it was – the pair of legs sticking out behind the bench didn’t look like a person’s, but they were like the ones on that monster she had seen either. As she got closer, she realized that it was neither. The ‘body’ was in fact a costume of a large pink rabbit clad in a set of overalls. Her jaw fell when instantly she recognized the costume from her childhood, and knew exactly where she was now. For this was a mascot known as Robbie the Rabbit, and it impossible to forget where his image gained prominence. 

The Lakeside Amusement Park. 

So, her earlier suspicious were correct, Alessa thought grimly. This place was a manifestation of that accursed town whose name she longed to forget. A new sense of dread came over her. She recalled with terrifying clarity what that place was capable of. What she was capable of under its influence. 

Suddenly, she was compelled to take a look closer at the prone costume. Something wasn’t right, and as she noticed the crimson liquid leaking from the mouth of the rabbit mask, she felt an appalling suspicion take form in her mind. That suspicion was confirmed when she nudged the body with her foot: to her horror, the huge rabbit mask rolled to the side, giving it clear. 

It was then Alessa realized that her earlier assumption was wrong. This wasn’t just an empty costume lying by the wayside. No, there was someone _inside_ of that thing, and whoever it was had not gone pleasantly. The faintest hint of rotting flesh drifted from inside; they probably hadn’t been dead for long, or else the smell would have been stronger. But it was the grisly sight of the mutilated neck jutting out from inside the rabbit head that finally drove Alessa over the edge. 

She doubled over, fighting the bile rapidly rising in her throat. It was a struggle she lost, and she collapsed to her knees as the retching took over. The spasms left her weak and dizzy, her heart pounding furiously in her chest as the world spun around her. 

She wasn’t sure how long she stayed there, head tucked between her knees while she tried to regain her strength. When she finally felt steady enough, she stood up and carefully made her way to the exit. She ignored the glimpses of other costumed bodies she caught out of the corner of her eye – no need for a repeat of what happened just now.  
She prayed she would soon find a way out of this nightmare. 

Strange how Fate was keen to dash her hopes so quickly. 

 

~

 

It was barely seconds after Alessa crossed the threshold that she heard it – a disturbing cacophony of noise that told her she was not alone. The sound of heavy footsteps quickly reached her ears, and she moved out of the way just as an all-too-familiar giant emerged from the shadows. This monster seemed even more vicious than the last, and any remaining thoughts of this being only a dream vanished entirely from Alessa’s mind as a massive arm smashed the guardrail next to her. Alessa jumped back in fright, and she hurried to put some distance between herself and this fiend. So intent was she on retreating, she failed to notice another of the demons looming behind her. Before she knew what hit her, a foot-long blade sliced down on its target. 

Alessa cried out as the creature’s blade raked across her back, rending clothing and flesh in a single merciless swipe. The young woman collapsed to her knees, whimpering in agony as the burning pain engulfed her entire body, akin to what she imagined being stabbed in the back by a machete must feel like. She reached back instinctively, trying to assess the damage, only to have a sickening sensation take a hold of her stomach when she saw the gore covering her hand. This was no simple cut or scrape; this was bad. She didn’t want to imagine how shredded her back was right now. 

Towering above her, Alessa’s unfeeling assailant moved to inflict more anguish on its helpless victim. Alessa didn’t wait for it to attack again. The moment she heard its lumbering steps, she rose to her feet with all the willpower she could muster. The jolt that shot up her spine caused her to cry out once more, but she didn’t let it deter her. She had to get away before she ended up cut to ribbons at the hands of this beast. 

She ran as fast as her legs could carry her, crossing into another segment of the amusement park-turned-hellish nightmare. The creature gave pursuit, though it was unable to breach the partitioning in the area; its oversized bladed limbs were not designed for the subtle motion of opening a gate. For a brief moment, Alessa allowed herself the tiniest of respites, before two noises that chilled her blood pierced the midnight air. 

One was the ominous howl of some type of canine animal. Alessa shuddered. She had always been afraid of large dogs, and she was in no position to defend herself from one now. But it was the other noise that truly terrified her – a horrible grating echo that could only be the sound of some type of drill. 

Alessa didn’t wait for whatever new horrors awaited her in this madhouse to reach her. She broke out into a run, desperate to find a way out of what was surely a death trap. As she sprinted across the rusted metal floor, she risked a glance behind her, catching a glimpse of a pack of four-legged creatures trailing her low to the ground. Dogs of some kind, she realized, given the unmistakable howling from earlier. But worse was the monster pursuing her in the air. Its features blended too much with the darkness to make out much detail, but she did see hints of some rapidly spinning blades. 

Alessa’s felt her chest constrict as she thought of what those drills would do to her given the opportunity. It soon became painful as the combined stress of running without a breather and the cold fear of what awaited her if she stopped began to take their toll. She forced herself to keep moving in spite of the choking ache in her chest. She couldn’t stop. She would die if she did.

Eventually she reached a flight of stairs. Her legs burned from running across the distorted landscape. The stairs looked daunting, but she forced herself to start climbing. The first few weren’t a problem. It wasn’t until she got to the second set that something went terribly wrong. 

In her desperation, Alessa failed to glance down as she hauled herself up the stairs. She was barely at the halfway mark when the most excruciating pain suddenly struck her feet. Her grip on the guardrail tightened as she let out an agonized scream. She looked down to see a ghastly sight that almost made her fell: needles of the hospital variety, shards of glass – all broken into sharp jagged pieces, stabbing into the soles of her feet. 

The steps grew moist from the blood dripping out of her wounds. Alessa would have fallen had it not been for the guardrail. Her vision grew blurry in hopeless despair. She didn’t know how it happened so quickly, but this entire section of the staircase was now littered with glittering fragments. And there were still over ten steps left to climb. 

Alessa let out a distraught cry. How was she ever going to get past this obstacle? She could barely walk as it was. For a brief moment, she considered just staying there in the hope that this nightmare would somehow end. 

That was before she heard the grating noise that sounded like a power drill. To her horror, she saw a spinning form in the distance – at least one of those demons had not let up the pursuit, and it was rapidly closing the space between them. 

Alessa made a choice. Knowing this would hurt immensely, she pulled herself on the railing as she took the next desperate step. Instantly the fragments of glass and metal ripped into her bare skin, inflicting even more cuts on the bleeding flesh. The pain was excruciating; her feet felt like they were being torn to shreds. Never in the past few years had she felt such agonizing torment before. Nonetheless she kept going, knowing the fate that awaited her if she failed to get away. She didn’t stop even as she reached the final section of the staircase, which to her utter gratitude, did not have a layer of debris coating it. Even so, piercing jolts shot up her spine repeatedly as the slivers already imbedded in her flesh tear at her with each step she took. 

By the time she made it to the top of the staircase, Alessa felt like she was dying. With one final burst of effort, Alessa hauled herself past the very last step. She was exhausted. 

It didn’t take her long to succumb to the fatigue. Her quivering legs folded beneath her as Alessa finally allowed herself to give in to the pain that had enveloped her entire body. If a horde of demons had attacked at that moment, they would have found her a pitifully easy prey. She was drained. 

She didn’t know how long she lay there. The cool metal surface felt surprisingly pleasant against her skin. Little by little, her lungs and heartbeat settled down, and the adrenaline that had kept her running faded from her system. Much to her surprise, she found the pain from her multiple wounds vanishing as well. 

Alessa stood up from the ground on shaky legs. She was still very, very sore, but a good deal of her strength had returned. Miraculously, the agony in her back and her legs was gone as well. She was relieved beyond words to find nothing but complete silence this far up in the park. There wasn’t much to speak of. A wooden track sat to her left, belonging to the park’s trademark roller coaster.

The only thing of interest was a plain gray door nearby. Alessa tried it, but the door was firmly locked. She went around and looked in the window to see a large machine inside the small room. This had to be the control mechanism for the coaster, but there was no way of getting in. Then again, it probably wouldn’t be of any use even if she did have a key. 

With nowhere else to go, Alessa found herself walking the track for the roller coaster. She was cautious to keep her footing firmly in the middle of the track. All around she saw nothing except pitch black darkness, to the point where it almost seemed like the track itself was floating above the amusement park rather than held aloft by support beams. Chunks of it were missing in certain places, and the path wasn’t exactly wide by any means. Alessa fought desperately to keep the butterflies in her stomach at bay. She was never a huge fan of heights and she figured she had to be at least a hundred feet up in the air.

It may have been halfway across when Alessa got the sense that something wasn’t quite right. She thought she detected a low hum in the air, accompanied by what seemed to be a faint vibration beneath her. Suddenly, the tremor grew in intensity until the entire coaster track was trembling like in the midst of an earthquake. Alessa stumbled to her knees, gripping tightly onto the railings to keep from falling. She glanced back and to her horror, she saw the entire track was collapsing piece by piece. 

She tried to run. But the damage was being done faster than she could move on such a thin, unstable path. She screamed when she stepped on a piece of track, only to have the segment break away from under it, leaving her clinging precariously to life on a tattered edge of the structure.

As if immune to the girl’s dilemma, the track didn’t stop crumbling. The architecture disappeared into the darkness like a toppled array of dominoes until every trace of the once magnificent coaster was gone. There was no chance for Alessa to pull herself up. The devastation took only seconds to reach her. And as the ledge beneath her tired hands disintegrated, the terrified young woman knew her time was up. 

Alessa Summers screamed in terror as she plummeted into the abyss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _AN: Yes, I used the prologue from the game. A lot of fics don't use it, so I decided to use it. ;-)_


	2. A Sanctuary Transformed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Disclaimer: Silent Hill is owned by Konami. No profit is made off of this fic.**

**Chapter 1: A Sanctuary Transformed**

**Central Square Shopping Center - Part 1**

 

With the shock one would get from a sudden burst of thunder, Alessa awoke from her ordeal. Her body was covered in sweat and her heart was hammering wildly in her chest. She looked around frantically expecting to see the hellish surroundings and demonic adversaries that had driven her to that deathtrap of a roller coaster. Instead she was alone, sitting at a wooden table inside the shopping mall’s Happy Burger fast food joint. She placed a hand on her chest in an attempt to soothe the sudden ache in her chest. The frightening trip through that awful place had been only a dream. 

“Oh man. What a nightmare,” she muttered, rubbing her tired eyes. She wiped away the sweat on her forehead with the back of her head. That dream had really scared the hell out of her – it had been years since she had woken up this shaken from a nightmare. 

She laid her head in her hands for a few moments while she adjusted to being awake. The sounds of the passing traffic were audible outside the burger shop, but she didn’t pay them much attention. A glance at her watch showed that it was 6:30 at night. Damn, she swore silently. Her mother would be worried sick by now. 

The young woman sat up and stretched, glancing around at the empty restaurant. What the hell happened? She had never fallen asleep in a public place like this before. She pinched the skin on her arm to make sure she was really awake.

“Damn,” Alessa breathed, still a little disoriented. Her stomach felt a little queasy too. That dream…it seemed so real. So vivid and detailed. And the pain inflicted on her by those monsters…

Alessa shook her head. Despite how vivid it may have been, at least the whole thing was nothing more than a dream. Thank God for that. Although, hadn’t anybody noticed she was having a nightmare right in the middle of this place? 

Come to think of it, where was everybody? The shutters weren’t down, so there had to be some employees around; the mall didn’t start closing tonight until seven. How long had she been out? Did they just leave her there without even trying to wake her up?

“Some staff,” Alessa scoffed. She would make sure to give them a piece of her mind the next time she saw them. 

Outside the burger shop, she instinctively reached for her cell phone, only to find that her vest pocket was empty. That was strange. She could have sworn she had brought it with her. Thankfully she still had some change to call home. Alessa headed for the nearest payphone, wondering what was up with her today. She had to be really tired or really distracted by something, though she had no idea what. Probably both, to do something as stupid as falling asleep in a mall. 

“Mom? Yeah, it’s me. I’m still at the mall,” Alessa said once she heard her mother’s familiar warm voice. Little was she aware of the stranger lurking nearby, listening to her every word, waiting for the right moment to approach her. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t call sooner. Actually I did, believe it or not. Yes, I know how stupid that was. I’m sorry. But I’m all right. Anyway, I’m coming home now. Uh-huh. Don’t worry, I’ll be careful. No, I haven’t heard from him. Yeah, I’m sure that’s it. Okay, I will. I love you too, Mom. Bye.”

Alessa hung up the phone. She didn’t get very far before she heard a gruff voice behind her. 

“Alessa, I need to speak to you.”

Alessa stopped and turned around. She instantly became wary as she saw the strange guy standing there. 

The Caucasian man looked to be in somewhere his fifties. His clothes spelled out plainly he was a rough working man: a dull gray shirt with a red tie, dark slacks and old brown shoes, and a worn-out brown trench coat. A dark fedora hid what Alessa guessed was probably a receding hairline. A week’s worth of stubble lined his aged face, making him look rougher than he already did. 

“How do you know my name?” Alessa asked sharply. 

The man held up his hands. “Let me explain. My name is Douglas Cartland. I’m a detective,” he informed her, wasting no time in introducing himself. 

Alessa raised her eyebrows. “A detective, huh?” 

“That’s right.”

“Really? Well nice talking to you,” Alessa said, resuming her walk towards the mall exit. She was no fool, and a strange middle-aged man in a mall who knew her name was definitely a sign of trouble. 

“Hold on. There’s someone who wants to meet you. Just give me an hour, no, half an hour of your time,” Douglas insisted as he followed her.

Alessa stopped and turned around to face him. 

“Look, I don’t know what you want with me, but I’m not interested,” she said firmly. “I know better than to talk to strangers.”

The older man didn’t relent, following her as she walked away from him. “I swear, I’m not gonna hurt you. You are Alessa Gillespie, aren’t you?”

Alessa froze in her tracks. She felt her blood run cold.

“What did you say?”

Douglas spoke slowly, hoping not to startle the confused girl. “I said I’m not going to hurt you. I just wanna talk to y-” 

Alessa harshly cut him off. “No, not that. What did you call me?”

She already knew, of course. She wasn’t deaf. But she needed to hear it again, if only to confirm the unsettling truth suspicion building in the pit of her stomach. Douglas was only too willing to oblige. 

“What? Alessa? That’s your real name, isn’t it? Alessa Gillespie.”

Alessa paled at the second mention of that name. Gillespie…a name from years past, linked with nothing but terrible memories of abuse and neglect and atrocities that should never have been allowed to take place. A name she wished dearly she could forget. 

Douglas noticed the way Alessa suddenly seemed shaken. He moved close to reassure her that he meant her no harm, which only caused her to take her an insctinctive step back. 

“Stay away from me,” Alessa told him. She resisted the urge to pull out the switchblade she carried for self defense.

“Alessa…”

“I said stay away!” Alessa screamed, taking Douglas by surprise. The detective instinctively backed away, taken aback by the young woman’s sudden burst of fury. Alessa took the opportunity to put some distance between her and this stubborn, stupid old man trying to his pry into her business. 

“Alessa, please! I have to talk to you. It’s about your childhood,” Douglas said, reaching for her arm. She roughly shrugged it away and looked at him with blazing eyes. 

“My _childhood_ ,” Alessa stressed, “is none of your goddamn business! When I get home, you better believe my parents are going to hear about this!”

“They’re not your parents,” Douglas blurted out before he could stop himself. He cursed himself for his stupidity, but the damage was done. Alessa’s expression turned absolutely venomous.

“Man, fuck you! Who the hell do you think you are anyway, telling me something like that? You don’t know anything!” Alessa ground out. Her fists where clenched from the anger she felt boiling in her veins. It took every ounce of self control she had not to take a swing at the man’s face. 

She took a deep breath to calm herself. It wouldn’t do any good to do something rash. When she felt slightly less furious, she went up to a nearby restroom and addressed her exasperating pursuer. 

“I need to go in here. And don’t even think of following me inside,” she warned Douglas. 

The detective held up his hands. “Okay, I got it. I’ll wait here.”

Alessa gave him a hard look. Though he felt a little ashamed of it, Douglas wilted her gaze. There was something about the way this girl was staring at him that told him it would be very unwise to make her any angrier. The term ‘hazardous to his health’ seemed an appropriate way to describe that gut feeling. 

Without a word, Alessa went into the restroom. 

“Damn it,” Douglas swore to himself as he watched the brunette slip away. He wasn’t immoral enough to follow her in. Not yet, anyway. She couldn’t stay in there forever.

He was certain of one thing: his client would be very upset if he lost this target.

 

~

 

Inside the restroom, Alessa leaned against the door and breathed a sigh of relief. For the next few minutes she was safe, unless that guy actually was enough of a pervert to come into the women’s bathroom. In which case, the persistent Mr. Cartland would find himself with Alessa’s switchblade stuck in a place no man wanted anywhere near a knife. 

“God, the nerve of some people. Who the hell does he think he is anyway? I knew I should have brought my stun gun with me today,” Alessa muttered as she entered one of the stalls. After taking care of some urgent business, she vacated the stall and washed her hands at the sink. She tried not to stare at the mirror for too long while she splashed some cold water on her face. 

There was something creepy about the mirrors here. She found it odd she hadn’t noticed it before, but she was certainly aware of it now. She wondered whether there was any validity to her nervousness, or whether this was just a childhood phobia manifesting itself again in the most inconvenient of circumstances. 

As a little girl, Alessa never liked mirrors. Ever since she could remember, she found them rather creepy. There wasn’t a good way to explain it, other than a feeling that they were almost like a doorway to another world on the other side, and that if she stared at the mirror for too long, she would be drawn into that world. 

In retrospect, she knew how ridiculous that sounded. But the mind of a child was a curiously odd thing. And if Alessa was fully honest with herself, the things she had seen in her time since more than confirmed that some childhood fears weren’t that silly after all. 

Nonetheless, Alessa had outgrown that particular phobia as a teenager. So why was it suddenly rearing its head again? Was the stress of her current situation playing tricks on her mind? Or was there something else here she wasn’t aware of? Whatever the reason, she averted her gaze from the reflections as she dried her hands, focusing instead on her current dilemma. 

She wondered what to do next. She wasn’t going back out there again. That so-called “detective” was still outside waiting for her. The more she thought about him, the more unsettled she felt. There persistence with which he tried to get her to talk both enraged her and gave her the creeps. And how did he know her former last name? Or about her childhood, for that matter? 

As soon he mentioned the name “Gillespie”, warning bells instantly went off in her head. 

There weren’t many people who knew about that name and the childhood associated with it. And those who did know the story behind it fell into two categories. Either they were her friends and family who sought to protect her, or an enemy who sought to exploit her. A suspicious old man she didn’t know most definitely fell into the latter category at the moment. 

But what alternative did she have? She couldn’t stay here forever. Her switchblade gave her an edge if he was unarmed, but it wouldn’t do much good against a gun. She looked at the closed door of the stall farthest to the right. The stall was occupied – Alessa saw the person’s shoes, or rather boots, below the door. It was worth a shot; maybe the person could lend her a cell phone, or at least accompany her outside.

She knocked on the door. “Excuse me?” 

“Yeah?” A feminine voice responded, with a hint of a sultry quality to it. Alessa thought it sounded familiar. She shook away the thought. Probably just the stress of the situation, she decided. Same as that mirror thing. 

“Uh…are you, uh, just about done here?”

The woman hesitated. Alessa didn’t blame her. It was an odd question to ask someone in a place like this. 

“Uh, yeah, maybe. Why do you ask?”

“Well, there’s this really weird guy outside who keeps following me. I think he’s trying to kidnap me or something.” 

“What?”

“Please, you have a cell phone I could borrow?”

“No. Sorry,” the woman apologized.

Alessa’s heart sank. “Oh. Then can at least go outside with me? Maybe if he sees us both he’ll back off.”

“Why? You have something you could use against him?”

“I have a knife I carry on me. But I’d really prefer not to 

“Sorry, hon. Knife or not, I really don’t want to risk my life for someone I don’t even know. No offense, darling, it’s nothing personal,” the woman said casually, as if Alessa’s life wasn’t possibly at stake.

“What?” Alessa cried in disbelief. “But what am I supposed to do?”

“Find someone in mall security,” the person suggested.

“There aren’t any nearby!”

“Then I guess you’re out of luck.”

Alessa banged on the stall door. “Please!”

“Sorry, I can’t help you,” the woman said with an air of finality. And that was that. 

“You…” Alessa didn’t know how to finish the sentence. A dozen different insults came to mind, each one worse than the last. What kind of sick, twisted person refused to help out someone in this situation? And a woman too? Alessa was absolutely disgusted. 

“I’m sorry, hon. I really am,” the person apologized, as if she actually meant it. Yeah, right. 

Well, Alessa thought sourly, so much for that idea. _And so much for helping out your fellow man._

“Bitch. Hope you fall in there,” she muttered under her breath, loud enough for the woman to hear. A disgruntled “hey!” came from the stall. Alessa ignored her. 

Fortunately, another option presented itself. 

There was only one window in the bathroom. Shining with vibrant sunlight, it stuck out like a sore thumb against the uniform brown of the walls. And against all odds, the window was unlocked. Alessa smiled triumphantly. Pushing up the glass, she climbed through the opening and found herself in an alley outside the mall, enclosed by a high wooden fence. 

A quick glance behind her showed Alessa two things: one, the back of the alley was blocked by a tall chain link fence, and two, the sun was setting. It would be dark soon. The last thing she wanted was to be stuck in a deserted mall at night with a creepy old guy stalking her. Taking the obvious route, she headed north up the alley, only to run into a problem only a minute later. 

“Oh fucking hell,” Alessa swore when she saw the large van blocking the end of the path. Why in the world would anyone park there? Not that it mattered much. Whatever the reason, the alley was a dead end. 

That left going back inside the mall. Amazingly enough, there was an entryway right nearby. Alessa frowned. This all seemed a little too convenient, like someone had gone to the trouble of arranging the whole scenario. It was more than just bad luck. Something else was going on here. Something that probably had a lot to do with that Cartland man. Damn. She would just have to hope she didn’t run into him again. And if by some chance she did, she would just have to deal with it. She was quick enough with a knife. Maybe she could take him out before he drew a weapon. 

The nondescript door led to one of the employee sections of the mall. Cardboard boxes and memos lined the dull gray hallway, including a poster that sent a small shiver up Alessa’s spine. Although it appeared to be for some theatrical play, the woman’s face on the poster looked remarkably like her, and seemed to gaze back with eerily haunting eyes.

Creepy…

Tearing herself away from the bizarre image, Alessa continued down the corridor. Most of the doors were locked, except the one leading back into the main shopping area. A fleeting moment of relief passed through her when she saw the familiar stores. Unfortunately, the hall to the main plaza was barricaded. So were all the stores, except for one establishment where the anti-theft barrier was pulled down only halfway. And weird noises were coming from that store. 

_Uh-oh._ Strange noises coming in an abandoned place usually meant trouble. As if she didn’t have with a strange old guy tailing her. Unfortunately, she didn’t have much choice in getting out of here. 

Alessa cautiously approached. The sounds were too muffled to distinguish, but they sounded like a bunch of moans and groaning. Her curiosity was piqued. Some employees engaging in a little after hours tryst? She smirked, envisioning the scenario in her head. But no, the noises were too deep for that. 

Something else was going on. A darker idea occurred to her. Had she stumbled onto a crime of some sort? That “detective” certainly looked suspicious enough. Thoughts of vandalism, theft, or worse entered her mind. She shivered; worse often consisted of two things: rape or murder.

The protective shutter was down half-way, but Alessa had no trouble pushing the bottom of the doors open. She slid inside like a snake, grimacing at the germs that were surely scattered over the sticky, dirty floor. 

Alessa stood up and dusted herself off. This particular shop was a small clothing boutique; she remembered stopping here once or twice, though the items for sale were rarely to her taste. Strange. The store was virtually devoid of any merchandise now. The odd noises from earlier were gone too. And lying on the center of the floor was a gun. 

Alessa’s eyebrows lifted slightly. What the hell was a gun doing in a clothing boutique? Unless there was really was a murder taking place… 

She knelt down to examine the weapon…

Abruptly, the odd distortions from earlier returned with a vengeance. Only now, they sounded more like groans mixed with a horrid wet ripping noise, as if flesh was being torn from someone’s body. Alessa looked sharply to the left…

That was when she saw it. 

Larger than any conceivable human being, the giant mass of flesh and bone hunched over the floor was the very definition of inhuman. Its misshapen head twitched in frenetic, disturbing spasms as the creature bit grotesquely at the meal in front of it. Alessa gasped when she saw the very human body lying motionless, bloody beyond recognition as the monster gnawed on its prey’s carcass like a rabid beast.

It was the creature from her dream, and it had already found its first victim.

Suddenly, it became aware of Alessa’s presence in the room. She felt a shiver run down her spine when it turned its sight on her. There were practically no facial features on the monster’s cylindrical skull, only a crude horizontal slit twisted into the form of a ravenous grin. 

The creature advanced on Alessa, rising to a daunting height of at least nine feet. Alessa was taken aback at the sheer size of the thing, but this was no time to hesitate. She quickly picked up the handgun and acting on instinct, aimed at the creature’s skull and fired. The bullet found its mark, and blood sprayed from the small wound. However, the monster didn’t appear to be fazed in the least. Its head continued to twitch with in seizure-like spasms as it approached. Alessa shot it a second time and a third, but the monster kept coming even as she fired round after round of gunfire. 

Click. Click. The gun was out of ammo. Alessa panicked. What the hell was she going to do now? She was cornered against the wall, with this thing still standing, and she had no other weapons besides her switchblade, which wouldn’t do much good against something of this size. She readied herself for an attack, hoping she could at least dodge those huge arms enough to get out of here. 

It never came. Just when the creature was going to strike, the strength suddenly left its body. The thin legs seemed to give out first, leaving it to balance for a second on its oversized limbs before it collapsed and remained still. 

Alessa took some deep breaths as the adrenaline in her system started to wear off. She stared at the creature she had killed, taking a closer view of its grotesquely misshapen features. She nudged the body cautiously with one boot. It was dead, whatever it was. Where could it have come from? Never had she seen anything like this before, until that horrible nightmare a while ago. What in God’s name was happening around here?

A voice at the back of her mind whispered that she already knew, save the one she feared to even mention out loud. She forced to voice to silence. _That_ possibility wasn’t an option. No way. Not now, not ever. What happened in that accursed town was over, and it was _never_ going to happen again. 

One thing was certain. She had better find out some answers to this mess, and soon. If there were more of these creatures around, she was going to have a very hard time finding a way out of this place. 

 

~

 

Tiptoeing around the fallen monster, Alessa looked around to see if there was anything useful. Briefly, she glanced at the body the beast had been munching on. From what she could tell, it was, or rather had been, a woman in her late twenties, possibly early thirties. Alessa turned away before the nausea overtook her. She felt sorry for whoever the woman had been, but there was nothing she could for her now. 

There were only two things of notice. Settled on a hanger above a stack of purses, Alessa noticed a modestly sized knapsack. Next to the handbags was a box of handgun bullets. 

Again, Alessa’s suspicion was roused. First she discovered a handgun in the most unlike of places, then she encountered a strange monster that took all the bullets in the handgun to kill, and now she found a box of ammo for her to conveniently reload said weapon? A convenient coincidence if there ever was one. Too convenient in fact, just like the blocked alleyway outside. What could be going on?

Alessa counted twenty bullets inside the box. She pocketed ten and reloaded her gun with the remaining half. She took the backpack as well and slipped it over her shoulders. She smiled to herself. Technically, she supposed this was shoplifting, but the store wasn’t going to miss one measly backpack, and it would come in handy if her vest pockets ran out of space. 

The rear door of the shop led into another utilitarian corridor. It wasn’t difficult to find the exit, but she noticed something else too: a map of the Central Square Shopping Center, split into three separate sections, one for each floor. Alessa skimmed briefly over the map. Strange, she noted. She had been here on countless occasions, yet she’d never quite thought about how large the Central Square Shopping Center truly was, with its three floors and the maze of employee-only sections. Finding a way out might prove to be more daunting than she realized. Folding the map into a small rectangle, she stuffed it into one of her vest pockets and headed for the second floor. 

Upon exiting the stairwell, everything appeared safe on first glance. Then she heard it: an odd wailing sound that reverberated throughout the area and grew closer by the second. Alessa’s hands tightened their grip around her weapon as she rounded the corner and spotted her newest aggressor. 

It came at her on two short legs, resembling nothing less than a gray, vein-laden blend of a fish and an eyeball on legs. To Alessa’s disgust, the creature appeared to be dripping some sort of slimy, viscous fluid with every step it took. She didn’t waste any time in shooting it. The creature rushed through three of her shots, and Alessa realized she had to put some distance between her and this thing, whatever it was. She jogged further down until she was a good fifteen feet away, and then unloaded another bullet on the repulsive beast. Finally its legs gave way, leaving it to writhe numbly on the ground. Alessa didn’t hesitate. She leaned close and delivered a shot directly through the monsters’ skull at close range, putting the dying aberration out of its misery. 

As before, Alessa stared at the creature she had just disposed of. Another one, she thought to herself, lips settling in a grim line. Another monster, one equally as inhuman as the beast she left behind at the boutique. 

_What’s going on?_ Alessa wondered yet again. Where were these things coming from? More importantly, what were they doing here in the first place? And what happened to the shopping mall’s employees? 

Something very bizarre was going on here. And it was appearing more and more important to Alessa that she get out of this place and find some answers. It was obvious this went far beyond that stranger claiming to be a detective. 

She decided to explore a bit. She tried the storage room doors one by one, until one finally yielded open. 

In retrospect, had she been any slower to react, she might well have found herself dead. As she idly opened the door, she was expecting the storage room to be empty. It wasn’t. Low to the ground, chewing noisily on what looked to be a piece of dried process meat, was a creature that for all intents and purposes, resembled a medium-sized dog. That was, until the smell of burnt flesh hit Alessa’s nose like a wall. She gasped with nauseated horror, not just from the stench, but from the realization that the ‘skin’ on the dog was actually composed of loosely wrapped bandages, with some very charred flesh showing underneath. 

Suddenly, the ravaged dog lifted its head as it detected the presence of an intruder nearby. Quicker than Alessa would have thought given its fragile appearance, the dog turned to face her, revealing a head that was split into two. With an intimidating growl, the creature charged at its prey. 

Snapping out of her shock, Alessa immediately threw the door shut as the monster leaped forward to attack. Barely a second later, a loud thud was heard coming from the room, followed the sound of claws scratching against metal. Alessa retreated backwards and aimed at the door, in case the dog somehow broke through to the outside. But after nearly a full minute, the noises ceased, and the door remained closed. 

Alessa breathed a huge sigh of relief. Whether the dog had gone back to its meal or whether it was just wondering how to get past this obstacle, she didn’t know. She was just grateful she had one less thing to worry about. For now, at least.

“Shit,” Alessa swore, somewhat irritated with herself. That was a close one. Had this ‘hellhound’, for lack of a better term, come after her as soon as she opened the door, or had it been a monster like the one at the boutique instead, she would have been in trouble. It was just a moment of carelessness, but she knew she couldn’t afford another one if she wanted to survive. She would have to be extra careful from now on. 

There was only one other accessible room, and this time, Alessa wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice. She turned the handle slowly with one hand while holding her fully loaded handgun with the other. However, there was nothing waiting inside this one save for the usual shelves and crates. 

Alessa scanned the rows of items. There was a box of fifteen handgun bullets on one of the shelves, along with a small brown bottle with a nondescript tan label. Alessa looked over the label. There were no ingredients or nutritional facts listed, only a small cross and the words “Health Drink” on the front of the label. Alessa stared curiously at the item. Who hadn’t heard of the “energy drinks” sold by a variety of brands in countless stores? On the other hand, she had no idea what in this thing, and she wasn’t very tired in the first place. Alessa had a healthy sense of curiosity, but she wasn’t curious enough to tale a sip of something that could very well be poison. She threw the bottle into her backpack, making a note not to touch the stuff unless absolutely necessary. 

There was one more thing on the shelf that caught her eye. It wasn’t an object though. Rather, it was a drawing on the side of a cardboard box. Concentric circles, with arcane symbols scattered in between, were etched in exquisite detail on the box. Three small circles were arranged in triangular formation at the center of the symbol, along with four indecipherable characters. The symbol was crafted in luminous red paint, and stood out vibrantly against the drab gray of the merchandise shelf. It was almost hypnotic in a way, Alessa noted, staring at the marking with rapt attention. It seemed so familiar as well. 

_Wait a minute…_

“I’ve seen this thing, before,” Alessa realized aloud. “But from where?”

She tried in vain to recall where exactly she had seen this image before. Nothing came to mind. Out of the blue, hints of pain rose at the back of her skull as she intensified her efforts to remember. Alessa brought a hand to her temples, grimacing as the hints gave way to a dull ache. Oddly enough, the pain subsided as soon as she stopped trying to figure out where she had seen this bizarre symbol before. 

“Ugh. What’s wrong with me?” Alessa murmured, softly rubbing her eyes to clear away the mild wooziness. It was staring down that she noticed the glint of something metallic nearby. Kneeling down to investigate, she realized that the object was a key, caught beneath a wooden pallet. Alessa attempted to pull it out, to no avail. She stretched her arm as much as possible, but the key remained an inch or two firmly out of reach. The platform was also far too heavy for Alessa to lift by herself. 

“Damn.” She tried to think of an alternative, but there was nothing around she could use to pull out the key. At least not in the storage room. The mall, on the other hand…

Alessa headed outside to the where the stores on the second floor were located. One of them was certain to have something she could use to get that key. A spare key wouldn’t just be laying around this place for her to find for no reason. There was a purpose to it, she was sure of it. 

As it turned out, the second floor of the shopping area was not entirely vacant. Alessa’s heart sped up when she saw the two enormous beings wandering on opposite ends of the walkway. She forced herself to remain calm, not wanting to attract their attention. Moving as quietly as possible, she ducked into the first store she found to be open, Helen’s Bakery. 

The smell of fresh bread and pastries surrounded her as soon as she entered. The counters were stacked everything from varied loaves of bread to a wide assortment of bagels, donuts, tarts, cookies, pies, cakes, and other superbly tasty snacks. Most of them were displayed behind glass or sealed in wrapping, but a considerable number were in the open air on trays and baskets, to entice customers into sampling the goods. For a brief instance, Alessa could almost ignore that there were two bloodthirsty demons walking around outside. Everything looked and smelled so delicious. 

And lying on a tray on one counter, next to a loaf of sliced bread, was a pair of tongs. 

_Aha!_ Success, Alessa thought with some glee. The tongs looked just the right side to fit under that box in the storage room. Holding on to the pincers, she considered half-seriously whether or not to take a donut from one of the shelves. As far as she could tell, everything still seemed fresh, and it wasn’t like there was anyone around to complain. However a flyer near the register gave her pause for second thoughts. The flyer was designed in the motif of the bakery, with a picture of a bread loaf and the bakery’s slogan. There was just one notable difference. On the word “bread”, the first letter had been crossed over in marker with a capital d. 

Alessa was familiar with the slogan of Helen’s Bakery: “Crispy toasted bread delivered right to your very door!” But now, the slogan now read something else entirely. 

“Crispy toasted dead…” Alessa read to herself. “What in the hell…”

Alessa took a second look around the bakery. Everything still looked the same, and smelled the same as well. But now she wondered if things were really as they seemed. It was clear that over a matter of hours, perhaps minutes, something beyond comprehension had happened to the mall. Everyone except her and three other people appeared to have vanished into thin air, and now one of those individuals was dead at the hands of the creatures that had apparently infested this whole place. Was it possible something had happened to the food here as well? Or was this flyer just someone, or something, trying to play a joke on her?

Either way, she wasn’t sticking around to find out.


	3. Riddles in the Madness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Disclaimer: Silent Hill is owned by Konami. No money is made off of this fic.**

**Chapter 2: Riddles in the Madness**

**Central Square Shopping Center - Part 2**

 

Alessa made her way back to the storage room. Getting the key out from under the heavy wooden panel proved to be a piece of cake using the tongs. She threw away the tongs, having no further use for them, and looked over the key she found, noting the inscription “My Bestsellers”. 

_Hmm…that bookstore…_

Right near the bakery was a bookstore by that same name. It would appear that was the next stop on her journey to find a way out of Central Square. 

If only she had a rope, Alessa lamented. Then she could just descend down to the first floor plaza. The drop from the second floor wasn’t that large, only big enough to be too risky to attempt. With nothing to cushion her fall, the risk of breaking an arm or a leg, or hurting her back and her neck was too great. On the other hand, who hadn’t climbed a rope in gym class at some point in their life?

Of course, there was only one problem with that. The only hardware store inside the mall was located on the first floor plaza, exactly the place needed to reach in the first place. 

_Guess it’s the bookstore then._

The path wasn’t without its obstacles, though. 

Alessa cursed when she saw three bipedal creatures blocking her path to the mall. Stepping blithely over the body of their fallen comrade, the bizarre eye-like beasts stomped towards her with their peculiar wail, making it clear they meant business. Alessa didn’t wait for her to reach them. She quickly gunned down one of them and moved to take care of the others. But before she could reload her gun, the door of the storage room behind her suddenly slammed open, and out came an all too familiar creature. 

The bandaged dog she had encountered earlier came charging at her full speed. Acting on instinct, Alessa kicked out with the heel of her boot, striking the dog right across its mutilated skull. The animal fell back stunned as Alessa struggled to regroup. Meanwhile, her other aggressors were mere feet away. Alessa glanced briefly between the two threats, realizing she was caught between the proverbial rock and a very hard place. She came to a decision. It was risky, but she would have to take them head on. Gripping her handgun by the barrel, she smashed the handle into the skull of one of her attackers, driving the creature down. Her efforts did not go unrewarded; its companion struck at Alessa with its torso, catching her in the left hip. Alessa grunted in pain, but she didn’t hesitate to run now that she had the advantage.

By now the demon hound had recovered from Alessa’s kick. Smelling the scent of prey nearby, it once again lunged with feral intent, and two confused monsters were unlucky enough to be standing in its way. Alessa risked a glance back, and gasped as she saw the canine maul one of the eye creatures, already beginning to tear the flesh off its victim’s body. 

Alessa couldn’t be happier to escape the carnage. She leaned back and exhaled deeply, taking a moment to calm herself. Thank God, she thought with no small amount of relief, as she spotted her destination across the walkway. But her relief was short lived. The two surreal giants from before were still lumbering around, still every bit as imposing. Only now, one of them was wandering close to the worst possible store it could have chosen. 

_My Bestsellers._

Alessa bit back a curse. Somebody out there certainly wasn’t making it easy for her, were they? She wouldn’t make it inside as long as the monster was there. Taking aim, she fired a shot at the tall being, hoping to attract all its attention. The creature didn’t appear to have noticed it, so she fired a second and a third. The gamble worked; the monster turned it her direction and began to move. Alessa waited until it was fairly close, watching the creature to her far left out of the corner of her eye, making sure it remained at a safe distance. When her main obstacle reached her, Alessa dove out of the way its huge right arm, running for the entrance of the bookstore. She fumbled to insert the key and unlock the door. Finally, she heard the telltale click she was hoping for. She rushed inside the bookstore and immediately locked the door, standing back with her weapon drawn. The glass displays didn’t appear large enough for the monsters to easily break through, but that didn’t mean they might not try it anyway. Fortunately, they must have realized this prey wasn’t worth pursuing, and resumed wandering aimlessly outside. 

_Whew, safe at last_ , Alessa thought. She stared around at the shop. The shelves were crammed with books and magazines, most of them common paperbacks and publications. There were a few shelves containing hardback volumes, and even some filled with music CDs. She also saw that there was a pile of scattered hardcover books on the floor of one isle. She picked one up and examined it, idly nothing the title on the cover: Shakespeare Anthology Volume 1: Romeo and Juliet. She shrugged, placing the book back on its shelf. She wasn’t a major fan of Shakespeare, though she did enjoy the plays she read in high school, as well as their film adaptations. Still, she didn’t have the time to sit and read at the moment. Her focus was on the exit way behind the cash register. 

The door was locked. Alessa grimaced when she saw the keypad next to it – was a second-rate bookstore really in need of a secret code to protect its merchandise? Next to that, a note scribbled on a sheet of loose leaf was pinned to the wall. Alessa’s eyes skimmed over the contents, eyebrows arching in mild disbelief as she read a most unusual and very cryptic memo. 

_In here is a tragedy---_  
 _art thou player or audience?_  
 _Be as it may, the end doth remain:_  
 _all go on only toward death?_

_The first words at thy left hand:_  
 _a false lunacy, a madly dancing man._  
 _Hearing unhearable words, drawn_  
 _to a beloved’s grave—and there,_  
 _mayhap, true madness at last._

_As did this one, playing at death,_  
 _find true death at the last._  
 _Killing a nameless lover, she_  
 _pierced a heart rent by sorrow._

_Doth lie invite truth?_  
 _Doth verity but wear the_  
 _mask of falsehood?_  
 _Ah, thou pitiful, thou_  
 _miserable ones!_

_Still amidst lies, though the end_  
 _cometh not, wherefore yearn_  
 _for death?_  
 _Wilt thou attend to thy beloved?_  
 _Truth and lies, life and death:_  
 _a game of turning white to black_  
 _and black to white._

_Is not a silence brimming with_  
 _love more precious than flattery?_  
 _A peaceful slumber preferred to_  
 _a throne besmirched with blood._

_One vengeful man_  
 _spilled blood for two;_  
 _Two youths shed tears for three;_  
 _Three witches disappeared thusly;_  
 _And only the four keys remain._

_Ah, but verily…_  
 _In here is a tragedy…_  
 _art thou player or audience?_  
 _There is nothing which cannot_  
 _become a puppet of fate or an_  
 _onlooker, peering into the cage._

Wow. Now there was a brainteaser if she ever saw one, Alessa decided with a trace of annoyed sarcasm. Obviously she wasn’t going to get out of here until she solved the riddle. But what did it mean? To her credit, the answer came to her almost instantly.

The Shakespeare volumes. 

Alessa tore the memo off the wall and went back to the isle where four of the books still remained on the floor. She placed each of them back on back on the shelf, reading off the titles on by one: Volume 3: Macbeth, Volume 2: King Lear, Volume 5: Othello, and Volume 4: Hamlet. Soon enough, the Shakespeare Anthologies were once again lined up in their rightful place on the bookshelf. That was when it hit her – the volume numbers. 

Yes, that had to be it. Each volume number pertained to a different digit of the code. It was the only thing that made any sense. The only question was…what was the correct order?

Alessa reread each part of the cryptic memo.

_The first words at thy left hand:_  
 _a false lunacy, a madly dancing man._  
 _Hearing unhearable words, drawn_  
 _to a beloved’s grave—and there,_  
 _mayhap, true madness at last._

The first clue was obviously Hamlet. The references to false lunacy and “unhearable” words gave it away. That meant the first digit in the combination had to be 4. 

_As did this one, playing at death,_  
 _find true death at the last._  
 _Killing a nameless lover, she_  
 _pierced a heart rent by sorrow._

This one was pitifully obvious: Romeo and Juliet. The second digit was 1. Next clue: 

_Doth lie invite truth?_  
 _Doth verity but wear the_  
 _mask of falsehood?_  
 _Ah, thou pitiful, thou_  
 _miserable ones!_

Alessa was rather confused by this one. A mask of falsehood? Plenty of Shakespeare characters could lay claim to that particular trait. _Come on, Alessa, you read all this in high school_ , she chided herself. Of the remaining three plays, she was most familiar with Macbeth. Looking at the next two descriptions, she realized that neither of them suited the tragedy of a king who fell to his own ambition and deceit. The third digit had to be 3. 

Next was a hint that would have also confused Alessa, had it not been for the last line in the passage. 

_Still amidst lies, though the end_  
 _cometh not, wherefore yearn_  
 _for death?_  
 _Wilt thou attend to thy beloved?_  
 _Truth and lies, life and death:_  
 _a game of turning white to black_  
 _and black to white._

Black and White? Othello, she realized, remembering the board game of that same name. The fourth digit was 5. 

Only one more play remained. Alessa didn’t even have to think about it. By process of elimination, the choice was very clearly King Lear. The fifth digit had to be 2. There it was, spelled out plainly by the hints. 41352. Or was it? 

_Wait a minute._ Alessa read the last two passages. 

_One vengeful man_  
 _spilled blood for two;_  
 _Two youths shed tears for three;_  
 _Three witches disappeared thusly;_  
 _And only the four keys remain._

_Ah, but verily…_  
 _In here is a tragedy…_  
 _art thou player or audience?_  
 _There is nothing which cannot_  
 _become a puppet of fate or an_  
 _onlooker, peering into the cage._

No, that number wasn’t the code. It still needed something more. She tried to make sense of the final four hints. One vengeful man spilled blood for two – was that Macbeth? His wife was the one who convinced him to assassinate the king. On the other hand, Macbeth wasn’t vengeful, just ambitious. That meant it had to be Hamlet, since he was taking revenge for both himself and his murdered father. But what did that have to do with the code? 

Spilled blood for two…did that mean she had to add two to the first digit? That would make the first digit 6, and by the same logic, the second digit would be 4. She repeated the next two lines to herself. Three witches disappeared thusly…now that was a clear reference to the witches in Macbeth. For them to disappear…

_I have to take out the number_ , Alessa realized. Yes, that made the most sense out of anything. The last hint stated that only four remained. Those “keys” were clearly the digits for the keypad, and the code was obviously composed of four digits. Subtracting away the 3 for Macbeth’s volume, she was left with the following code: 6452. 

Alessa hurried to the keypad. She entered the four numbers, expecting the door to unlock. Instead, to her utter disbelief and disappointment, she received the beep that indicated she had entered the wrong combination. 

_What? You’ve gotta be kidding me!_

She slammed a fist against the door in irate frustration. After all that work figuring out horrible riddle, how could this be the wrong number? What the hell was it then? 

She skimmed again over the memo, trying to figure out where she had gone wrong. The last two numbers weren’t the problem, she was sure the 5 and the 2 were correct. The problem had to be in the first two digits, and she was certain it had to do with math. She thought back to the original numbers before she changed them: 4 and 1. Those couldn’t be the correct one, since that ignored the last part of the brainteaser. Adding to them obviously wasn’t the solution. Neither could she subtract or divide from them. That left only viable option. 

Alessa multiplied the volume numbers for Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet. Four times two and one times three, respectively. 8352. 

Crossing her fingers, she entered the number sequence into the keypad. This had better work, she thought sourly, because otherwise, she was going to be seriously pissed off. She needn’t have worried. This time, the keypad turned green and released the lock on the door. 

_Yes!_ Alessa thought excitedly, practically bouncing a little. She couldn’t help it, she was just glad to finally be getting out of this place. Making sure her weapon was loaded, and vowing not to touch anything Shakespeare for a very long time, Alessa left behind the haven of the My Bestsellers bookstore.

 

~

 

As soon as she entered yet another employee section of the mall, Alessa realized she wasn’t alone. Several meters ahead of her, clad in a dark long dress, was a very pale young woman with long blonde hair. Alessa eagerly approached her, happy to see another human being who wasn’t stalking her in this place. 

“Hey, are you OK?” she asked, concerned about what may have happened to the woman under these bizarre circumstances. “Who are you?”

The woman didn’t answer her. She simply stared at Alessa with an expression that gave her the creeps. A peculiar sensation ran across her back as the woman’s eyes bored into her, as if they were trying to penetrate into her very soul. Suddenly, she didn’t think it was such a good idea to get close to this person, whoever she was. Finally, the woman spoke. 

“Who I am is not important at the moment,” she answered vaguely, giving Alessa an appraising glance. “What is important is that you remember your true identity. You must reclaim your true purpose in this life. Only then will the cycle be complete.”

_What in the world…_ “Huh? What are you talking about?” Alessa asked, perplexed. 

“Don’t you know?” the woman countered. “Have you forgotten so much about yourself?” she chided, giving Alessa a look bordering on disapproval. 

“What do you mean by that? You’re not making any sense,” Alessa stated. This woman sounded a lot like somebody from her old religion, yet that was impossible. It had been years since she was last present in her hometown, and after the chaos she left behind in her wake, everyone in that godforsaken place had to believe she was dead. There was simply no way any of them could be aware of her current whereabouts. 

She tried a different route. “What do you know about those monsters?”

The woman gave the slightest of smiles, responding in an awed, almost reverent tone. “They have come to witness the Beginning. The rebirth of Paradise, despoiled by mankind.”

“Paradise?” _Oh, no…_

The fear that Alessa felt upon hearing that single ominous word far eclipsed anything she had experienced during her encounters with the creatures occupying the mall. Suddenly, this entire situation took on a terrifying new perspective, and it was more vital than ever that she obtained some hard answers to what was happening. And whoever this strange woman was, she was going to be the person to provide them. 

But before Alessa could move to threaten her, a powerful throbbing suddenly took hold of her forehead. Alessa dropped to her knees in anguish, holding her head with both hands, whimpering as the dreadful migraine pounded inside her temples.

Looming over her, the strange blonde woman merely smiled, not appearing the least bit concerned over Alessa’s pain. As she departed, leaving Alessa to struggle with her agony, an impossible, haunting thought inexplicably forced its way into her mind. 

_Claudia?_


	4. Terror in the Mall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Disclaimer: Silent Hill is owned by Konami.**

**Chapter 3: Terror in the Mall**

**Alternate Central Square - Part 1**

 

Soon after the cryptic blonde left the corridor, the throbbing in Alessa’s head retreated. She carefully rose to her feet, still feeling traces of disorientation. What the hell just happened? She had never felt a headache that intense in such a short amount of time. And why did it occur the moment at the precise moment she contemplated harming that strange woman?

That woman…

Alessa tried to make sense of the thought that had entered her mind just moments ago. Could that woman really be her childhood friend Claudia? She hadn’t seen Claudia in a very long time. Therefore, it was reasonable to assume she probably wouldn’t recognize her if she saw her today. But the way the woman had spoken to her just now…she sounded delusional, insane even. It was nothing like the gentle, level-headed tone Alessa was once used to. 

Nonetheless, Alessa wasn’t stupid. Given the incredible scenario she found herself in, she knew there was a chance that her first guess was correct; that this bizarre, apparently insane woman was the same girl she once loved as a sister. 

And yet, she couldn’t bring herself to accept that possibility. This woman couldn’t be Claudia. For one thing, how would Claudia have any idea where she was? But more importantly, Alessa refused to accept that her best friend would let herself turn into this…this lunatic who talked about those hideous beasts like they were angels. She couldn’t believe it. She wouldn’t believe it. Until she saw some tangible evidence that indicated otherwise, this woman being her childhood friend was not an option. 

Could she be a cultist from her hometown, then? Alessa wondered. The mention of “Paradise” almost seemed like a dead giveaway. Who else would mention such a thing in regard to those monstrosities, other than a member of the despicable religion she abandoned long ago? On the other hand, if the woman was a part of that organization, how could she possibly have known where to look for her? It had been years since she was last in that town, and her father had taken her as far away from there as he could. No one back there should even have a clue that she was still alive, much less accurate knowledge of her current whereabouts. 

Alessa shook away the disturbing thoughts. The only way she was going to find out one way or another was to confront the source of the mystery herself. She followed after the mysterious woman, but unfortunately, it appeared that she had vanished. Any questions would have to wait until later. 

There was only one viable exit out of this section of the mall. Alessa peered uncertainly into the open elevator leading to the mall’s lower levels. She noted the floor was covered in stains and grime, and the far back of the elevator was concealed in shadows. She was cautious in her movements, taking one step at a time, alert for any signs of danger. 

Even so, she was not prepared for the burst of light that exposed the elevator’s chain link walls as the single bulb in the elevator flashed to life. She certainly wasn’t prepared for what she saw behind that wire fence, mere feet away from her. 

It was not a human being. Neither was it one of those creatures infesting the shopping center. Whatever this thing was, it appeared to be humanoid in form. And struggling in its hands, being mangled by the demon’s strong arms, was a writhing mass of flesh. 

Alessa instinctively stepped back, bringing her hands to her mouth as she gasped in shock. Before the thought of turning back even occurred to her, the elevator door suddenly slammed shut, prompting Alessa to swirl around in shock. As if that weren’t enough, a rusty iron gate fell over the door, barring her from escaping. 

The elevator began to move. Alessa sank down to the floor, holding her knees close to her. She was trembling. Suddenly she felt very vulnerable in this place. The elevator journeyed down past one floor, and once again, Alessa saw the human-like creature from before, almost as if it were stalking her outside in the elevator shaft. 

“Please let this be a dream. Please let this be a dream,” Alessa repeated to herself. Yet even as she closed her eyes, she knew that it wasn’t. This was real, and no amount of wishing would allow her to find herself safely in her home, with her parents perfectly all right and nothing out of the ordinary to worry about. She gripped her legs tightly, shaking uncontrollably from the mass of panic and dread starting to sink in. 

This wasn’t a dream. This was a nightmare. 

And there would be no waking up from it. 

 

~

 

The elevator ground to a halt. Alessa looked up at the door as the rusted gate barring it lifted, dreading what she would witness this time. An eternity seemed to pass by, though it was only a matter of seconds. Finally, the elevator door slid open. 

And Alessa entered a realm of darkness. 

The world as she knew it was gone. Where Alessa was sure there had once been a normal employees’ area, the corridor was obscured in shadows. Goosebumps broke out on her skin as she fearfully stepped out of the elevator. The temperature in the air had chilled considerably; it was like she had set foot inside a morgue. 

Out of nowhere, the elevator door slammed shut behind her. Alessa pounded on the panel, but the door would no longer open. Wherever she was, she was stuck here. There was no way back to the ‘normal’ world she left on the second floor. 

Gradually her eyes adjusted to the darkness, allowing her to make out the barest of details about her surroundings. Alessa took one cautious step at a time, wondering what horrors would confront her in this darkened, frigid place. 

She didn’t have to wait long. 

There was only the briefest of warnings to save her from having a chunk of her arm torn off as a monstrous creature savagely lunged at her from the shadows. Alessa barely sidestepped the vicious assault, falling back on her rear as the demon landed across her on four nimble legs. She could discern few details in the overwhelming murkiness, but the fearsome growls coming from the beast told her that it was no doubt one of those gruesome mutilated dogs she found on the second floor. 

The undead canine wasted little time in jumping at its prey. Alessa screamed as its jaws clamped down on one of her boots, hungrily biting at the leather as it tried to reach the flesh inside. Alessa gave it a hard kick to the head with her other leg, knocking it away. Before the creature recovered, she aimed her gun and fired. 

Alessa was practically blind in the dimness of the corridor, but thanks to the short distance, the bullets found their mark. The creature writhed on the ground from its injuries, and Alessa took advantage of the opening to make a run for it. 

She had no way to tell where she was going. There was not the slightest shred of visible light in the area, only the terrifying sounds that signaled her aggressor had shaken off its wounds and was frantically in pursuit of its quarry. She groped blindly against the walls, trying to feel for any sign of a door to a room she could hide in. Finally, to her utter relief she came upon a doorknob that yielded to her grasp. She ducked inside barely a moment before her would-be mauler made a vicious attempt to sink its slime coated teeth into her leg. 

Alessa leaned back against the door. She could hear the undead beast clawing at the metal, trying to scratch its way inside. Alas, the door proved too much of an obstacle for the canine, and after several heart stopping moments, Alessa realized the creature had retreated. 

She found herself in a storage room of some kind. There wasn’t much to speak of. A few shelves, some boxes set on the floor, and a long table cluttered with random miscellaneous items. Alessa shoved most of them aside and collapsed on top of the table. She needed a rest. She had barely begun to find her way out of this goddamn place, and already she was tired of all the running and fighting. And there was still such a long way to go. Even if it was just for a few minutes, she needed a break from the insanity of those twisted aberrations lurking outside. 

Eventually, Alessa climbed off the table. Safe as this little niche of the shopping mall was, she couldn’t stay here forever. If she wanted any chance of seeing the outside world again, she had to venture out into the darkness whether she wanted to or not.

There was one thing of notice she had failed to spot before. On the table where she had lain were still some items that were not tossed aside to the floor with the others. One of them was a long sheet of fax paper in the spot where her hand rested for those few precious minutes of respite. And printed on the surface of that paper was something startlingly familiar. 

Alessa’s eyes widened briefly as she saw the design scrawled on the loose sheet of paper. There it was again: the same eerie symbol from the storage room, printed in the same glowing red ink as before. And once again, Alessa’s head started to hurt as she stared at the arcane-looking crest. She shivered under its luminescent glare. There was something sinister about this symbol, something she was almost positive she knew about. If only she could remember where it was from…

Alessa harshly turned away. She couldn’t stare at it anymore. She had a feeling too much of that symbol might result in something she really didn’t want to experience All the more reason to find a way out of this place, away from its hellish corridors and madness-inducing symbols. Her lips twisted in disgust. _And to think I touched the damn thing. Yuch!_

She had to get out of there. The question was how. With so much of the place under the cover of darkness, it would be difficult to see where she was going and even harder to defend herself successfully against those creatures. She needed a guide to this place, and she needed it soon, before she stumbled into some place she had no idea how to escape from. The bullets for her handgun would only last so long. 

Suddenly she remembered the map of the shopping mall she picked up a while back. If there were only a source of light she could carry with her…

The corridor was just as ominous as Alessa left it. The atmosphere felt a little colder, as though the air had chilled several degrees further. The stench of death lingered in the hallway, no doubt the work of those atrocious beasts. God only knew where they had come from, or how many people they might have murdered and devoured so far. 

She could still hear the noises betraying their presence nearby. Low growls of a warped canine pitch; the grotesque chewing and slurping as the creatures consumed whatever meal they had foraged. There _was_ a light at the end of the metaphorical tunnel, however. Unless her eyes were mistaken, Alessa could make out the faint outline of a possible escape from this shadow-enveloped hell. There was only one thing standing in her way. 

The monstrous hounds were dead ahead. There were two of them, gnawing on some indistinguishable piece of meat. Alessa was able to discern the barest of details. There was only a berth of one, perhaps two feet between them and the wall: wide enough to allow passage beside them, but not enough to allow some leeway in maneuvering. She would need to be precise to the letter. Once her legs brushed past the dogs’ decaying bodies, there would be no turning back. 

Alessa steeled her resolve. She could do this. All she had to do was restrain her fear. She silently counted down. 

_One…_

_Two…_

_Three!_

Alessa threw herself into the fire. 

The monsters were unprepared for her sudden burst of energy. Their eyes, assuming they had eyes, were almost as ill-equipped as Alessa to handle the engulfing shadows dominating the distorted landscape. They were reliant almost entirely on their sense of hearing and smell, which were surely unbalanced by the horrid state of decay their bodies were in. 

Even so, they reacted quickly. Barely a second after Alessa brushed past them, they were on to her. She prayed she wouldn’t trip over her own feet in the blinding obscurity. There was no way she would be able to hold back these demons in such a cramped space with only a handgun. 

But fate was on her side today. As she reached the end of the tunnel, she felt the twin handles of a viable exit, and it was unlocked. She didn’t look back as she slammed the doors behind her. She wasn’t coming back here again. Not if she could help it. 

 

~

 

It was almost like a game, Alessa reflected as she fled from the mass of creatures which had been waiting outside the doors. Find a new area, bypass the monsters lurking there, and kill the occasional one that proved too difficult to evade. 

Far from entering a possible place of refuge, she had stumbled into three lumbering giants that attacked her almost the second she emerged into their field of view. And they weren’t the only ones. Those mutated things from the normal mall were back as well, and this time, they appeared to have gotten a boost of unflappable energy. 

Alessa grunted in pain as one of the creatures slammed into her thigh, viciously knocking her down to the floor. She tried her best to land on her side – if her leg snapped from a twist at the wrong angle, she was as good as dead. The ‘eyeball’ leaned back its head and Alessa instantly forced herself to her feet. That was not a good sign, and only seconds later, her ominous feeling proved correct when a stream of ashen fluid spewed over the area where her legs had been. Alessa couldn’t help but yelp in fright. The substance burned into the ground, which soon sizzled with a terrible smoke and crackling sound, and Alessa watched in horror as she realized that had she been a second slower, her legs would now be the things dissolving under the fluid’s alarming acidity. 

The creature readied itself for another corrosive blast, and Alessa knew she had no time to waste. She fired several shots at the beast until it finally collapsed to the floor. While the creature writhed in infuriated agony, Alessa turned and ran as fast as her legs would take her. 

Unlike the previous section of the mall, this area of Central Square was somewhat slightly lit. Enough so that Alessa was able to spot a familiar arrangement of payphones as she sped by in flight from her unearthly pursuers. She was now in the very place where this whole mess started: the hallway where she first encountered that repugnant creep of a detective. There was no trace of Douglas’ presence, though. Perhaps he wasn’t caught up in whatever shift in reality warped the mall into this tangible incarnation of nightmares. Or perhaps he was simply whisked away to another area of this hellish world. Alessa couldn’t care less. 

It was Douglas’ approaching her that began this twisted spiral into insanity. As far as Alessa was concerned, he could rot here with the rest of these grotesque freaks. 

She hadn’t the faintest idea of where to go. And then, she remembered the way she escaped from that lout detective. Morbid curiosity struck her. Had that woman in the stall gotten caught up in this too? What might have happened to her if she had? Alessa doubted she would find the actual person, but perhaps she might have left something that could be of use. 

She was half-expecting the bathroom to be as dark as that first terrible corridor she encountered. To her mild surprise, it was actually slightly illuminated by an eerie orange atmosphere flowing from the boarded-up remnants of the same window she’d climbed out through before. Alessa had no idea where it was coming from, but it was oddly reminiscent of a sunset. 

_Dorothy, we’re definitely not in Kansas anymore_ , she thought with some sarcasm. 

The light was strong enough for her eyes to ascertain greater insight, and for the first time, Alessa beheld the profound transformation the shopping mall had undergone in all its unmasked glory. Every inch of the restroom was a warped and ruined version of its former self, eaten away by advanced rust and an absolutely nauseating reddish-brown substance. Alessa didn’t dare to hope it wasn’t dried blood. 

Deep inside her subconscious, echoes of imprisoned memories stirred. She had seen this grotesque effect of decay before. She simply refused to accept it. She could not accept it. She could not accept it, lest she open herself to the scenario that would mean the end of life as she had known it for the past six years. For the sake of her sanity, she had to believe something else was behind this. 

Alessa didn’t expect to find much here; it was a bathroom, after all. And yet, to her complete and utter disbelief, her eyes fell on something that was most definitely out of place in the dreadful setting. 

“Bleach?” Alessa read aloud, giving the colorful orange bottle a bewildered glance. What the hell was a bottle of bleach doing in a place like this?

She picked up the plastic container. It was full too, she noted as she held the bleach in her hands. For a moment, she considered whether or not to take it. 

_Oh, this is ridiculous_ , she thought. _What do I need with bleach?_

On the other hand, what were the chances of finding an item laying around like this for no specific reason? It seemed unlikelier than even finding the bottle of bleach in the first place. 

Oh well. She stuck the container inside her backpack, making sure it was tightly sealed first. Maybe she could use it to blind someone, or something, in an emergency. A grim smile formed on her lips. She sure wouldn’t hesitate to use it against Douglas if necessary. 

She meant to leave when out of the blue, she recalled the reason why she had come in here in the first place – the mystery of what had happened to her ‘companion’ from before. 

The stall in the back was closed. It was the only one of the three that did not have its door open and its interior displayed to Alessa’s eyes…almost as if it were hiding something. And now that she focused on it, Alessa sensed an unusual aura around it. Something wasn’t quite right. She approached cautiously, firearm in hand. With a blend of hesitation and curiosity, she knocked tentatively on the door. 

Three knocks answered back. 

_What the…?_ Alessa jumped back in shock. Even with her current train of thought, the response still took her by surprise. Somebody couldn’t possibly still be in there, could they? She supposed it wasn’t implausible to use the restroom as a hideout from the monsters, but who in their right mind would hide in a place like this for so long? And in a filthy stall too? Certainly no one normal. That lady she’d spoken too had her problems, but she didn’t seem that disturbed. Alessa rapped on the door again, and sure enough, three more knocks answered her inquiry. 

“Hello?” Alessa asked. Silence. “Is anyone in there?”

There was no response. Alessa frowned. Was there really somebody in there or was she just going crazy?

There was only one way to find out. 

Unfortunately, it seemed this was one mystery that would remain unsolved. The door was locked. No matter how much Alessa tried she couldn’t get it open. For a moment she considered shooting out the lock, but then she thought better of it. Depending on where it was placed, it might take more than one bullet to dislodge it – bullets she couldn’t afford to waste on a stupid door with all those creatures out there. 

It was her intent to leave. But this place wasn’t done with her yet. Barely had she taken any steps before the sound of a door being unlocked startled her. Alessa swirled back just in time to hear the creak of the door’s hinges moving just a bit. Alessa wasn’t stupid. She immediately pointed her gun in the direction of the stall. 

“Is anyone in there?” she asked loudly. 

Nobody answered. Alessa’s irritation swelled slightly at the cryptic silence. Wasn’t it enough that she was trapped in this place? Did it really have to mess with her like this?

She crept one step at a time towards the ominous stall, intent on putting an end to this sick little joke. With her weapon at the ready she slowly pushed the door open. And when she saw what awaited her inside, Alessa gasped in horror. 

She jerked away from the horrid display with one hand over her mouth, utter shock and revulsion suddenly coursing through her insides. The mash of blood and gore was too much; she couldn’t stare at it any further. She felt the bile rise in her throat, and she clutched at her stomach as she struggled to contain the nausea trying to overwhelm her. Alessa collapsed to her knees, shaking with barely restrained heaves. She remained that way for some time, heartbeat racing in her chest, rapidly breathing in and out while she tried to calm her distressed nervous system. 

Through sheer force of will she managed to keep herself from vomiting. Eventually the tidal wave in her stomach settled and she was able to cease hyperventilating. Alessa stood up shakily on quaking legs, calm once again, though no less revolted by the gruesome…thing…in the stall. 

Out of the blue, a glint of something shiny abruptly caught her attention. Unfortunately, its location was about the worst it could have been. 

_Oh shoot…_ To Alessa’s dismay, the glint was coming from something placed squarely on the floor of the setting that had just given her one hell of a shock. 

Whatever it was, Alessa contemplated leaving it in favor of getting the hell out of there. However, the notion didn’t shine for long. In a place like this, almost anything could be of some value. The item could easily be a key to some door she had yet to come across, in which case, she would definitely prefer to claim it now, because there was no way she was coming back here again to retrieve it. 

There was no getting around it. However distasteful the task, she knew what she had to do if she wanted that item. With a sigh of resignation, she bent down to pick up the metal trinket. Her eyes were narrowed to slits as she tried her best to avoid staring directly at the sight that so appalled her. Even so, its presence was palpable. The smell was absolutely foul, forcing her to cover her mouth and nose while she held her breath. It was like someone had died there and the remains splattered all over the interior of the stall. She grimaced even further at the thought of having to touch the grimy, gore drenched, germ infested floor. As soon as she had the object, Alessa rushed away from the horrible spectacle. Finally she was able to let out her breath. 

_Aw man, I risked losing my lunch for this?_ Alessa thought wryly, staring at the trinket in her hand. 

It turned out the item she had risked a complete loss of dignity for was nothing more than a common necklace with a small pendant attached. Alessa was understandably disappointed, though she examined the necklace anyway. It seemed to be of gold, perhaps 14 or 24 karats; Alessa couldn’t tell which. But it was the pendant that sparked some slight interest: a small charm in the shape of a butterfly. For some reason she couldn’t explain, the symbol seemed oddly familiar…

Did this belong to that woman she had spoken to? She wondered. Or, even worse…were those the remains of said woman lying in that stall? Alessa shuddered at the morbid possibility. Nobody deserved to die in that way, no matter how rude or disrespectful they were. The…evidence…inside that area indicated something extremely traumatizing to the human body, as if the person had been literally torn apart or imploded from the inside out by some massive powerful force. Alessa wondered if that was exactly what happened. The monsters outside were brutal, but they didn’t seem quite capable of something like this. She focused back on the necklace. 

“Eh, what a piece of junk,” Alessa muttered, more to focus on something less disturbing than actually meaning it. It wasn’t that she was unsympathetic to what may have happened. But she wasn’t even certain it was that woman who had been killed. It could easily be some kind of illusion by this place, meant to unsettle her will and increase her fear. Besides, what good would jewelry be in a place like this? It looked pretty, but that was about it. Alessa had better ones at home, and there was something odd about this one. Something whispered to her that it might not be such a good idea to take it, regardless of the effort she went to acquire it. 

Something crashed in one of the stalls. 

Alessa shrieked as she was startled out of her wits by the loud bang. And this time, there was no investigation on her part; this was the last straw. Whatever was going on this room, she wanted no part of it whatsoever. Dropping behind the mysterious necklace, she hauled out of the ruined lavatory as fast as humanly possible. 

Unbeknownst to her, the worst had yet to arrive.


	5. Deeper into the Fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Disclaimer: Silent Hill is owned by Konami. No money is made off of this fic.**

**Chapter 4: Deeper into the Fire**

**Alternate Central Square - Part 2**

 

Adjacent to the apparently haunted restroom was a room that, on first glance, was totally nondescript. It looked like a storage room. It certainly smelled like a storage room, Alessa thought as she wrinkled her nose: musty and dry, the air stale with the scent of dusty boxes and shelves. For all intents and purposes, it was an ordinary run-of-the-mill storage room. 

However, from the viewpoint of a certain young woman, this seemingly inconspicuous storage represented the first lucky break in her quest to escape this wasted hell. 

Alessa grinned joyfully when she spotted the small case of ammunition laying on one of the shelves. Thirty handgun bullets: not a lot, but definitely a lifesaver given the circumstances. There didn’t seem to be anything else, until she noticed a most peculiar sign posted along the wall near the entryway. 

_Warning: When leaving the room, please do not turn off the lights. It will be obvious if they are not switched on._

“Hm.”

The warning was clear as could be. Common sense dictated that she listen to said warning and leave the light switch alone. But common sense was not always all it was cracked up to be. Alessa had learned that lesson well. And so when faced with a dilemma such as this, she did the only logical thing there was to do in this type of situation. 

She turned the light switch off. 

Immediately the storage room became enveloped in a beam of iridescent white. Alessa turned around to find the source of the beam and there it was: a pocket flashlight shining brightly from between two shelves, like a beacon of comfort standing out amidst the darkness. Never had Alessa been so glad to see a common household item before and she eagerly snatched the flashlight from its deceptively obvious hiding place. She noted with mild surprise that this particular flashlight was even equipped with a strap of some kind, with which she could attach it to her body. 

Slipping off her backpack momentarily, she secured the flashlight on the upper left part of her chest. As long as she didn’t get struck there by some monster or fall down hard face first on the ground, it would be all right. 

The moment her hand touched the doorknob, a gigantic roar emanated suddenly and inexplicably from the outside. The hairs on the back of Alessa’s neck stood up in response as the monstrous sound echoed throughout the shopping mall with inhuman force, shaking the building right down to the foundations. 

“What the hell?” Alessa quietly exclaimed. Her hand trembled as she gripped the doorknob with instinctive tightness. It was like a massive breeze had swept out of nowhere through the area, leaving her in shock and the ground itself humming with uncontrollable reverberations. 

Something was out there. 

The corridor had gone deathly still. Where before were the growls and moans of numerous aberrations there was now only an ominous silence. Each footstep she took echoed loudly in the air, ringing loudly in Alessa’s ears like a pin drop in a derelict morgue.

She traversed the area with unusual ease. There was something…unnatural about the lack of a menace, as though a place such as this demanded the vicious sights and tones of inhuman aggression. Amidst this disquieting stillness burned a confounding question: where had the monsters gone?

Thanks to the piercing beam of her newly found flashlight, the few yards ahead of her were brightly lit. Alessa barely believed her good fortune. Just when she was realizing she would never get out of here without a tangible source of light, she discovered a conveniently placed flashlight in an otherwise unremarkable storage room. As if something were directing her every move, manipulating her through this place the way a rat was coerced into a maze in a laboratory. 

And there was still the matter of that roar when she switched off the lights… 

Crawling beneath a half-closed shutter, she found herself in front of a very familiar boutique. Again, there were no signs of any aberrant creatures in sight. Alessa could not help but wonder. Had she somehow caught a lucky break, or just the opposite? Was the shopping mall returning to normal or was thus the start of something much worse?

The boutique was but a mere shadow of how Alessa left it. Most of the items for sale were gone, and the few remaining articles of clothing were tattered and destroyed. Out of curiosity more than anything else, she picked up the one thing that looked to be of any value, a clothing hanger set conspicuously on the single remaining dress rack. It looked like a regular old hanger, but her instincts told her there might be some use for it. 

That was the other thing that bothered her. Her instincts were usually sharp, but they were never quite this accurate. How was it that she could take a glance at some inane object and instantly perceive whether or not it should be discarded? There was no explanation that Alessa could discern, save that some imperceptible force was guiding her along this outlandish unsettling path. To what ends she didn’t know. She shuddered to think of what the influence itself might be; certainly nothing benevolent, given the horrifying depravity of this place. Alessa was only sure of one thing: this all seemed too familiar. 

She stored the hanger as best as she could. While it would do little against the tough skin of a monster, there was a chance it could be utilized to blind a more ‘human’ assailant if need be. She was not foolish enough to believe anyone she might possibly encounter in this place would have her best interests at heart. From here on she would trust no one but her parents, and she didn’t want them anywhere near this ghastly place. 

Alternatively, perhaps she could use it to pick the lock of one of the mall’s doors in case of an emergency. As the old saying went, necessity was the mother of invention. Besides, something told her it would be unwise to leave anything behind in this particular locale. There was something…elusive in the air, some ethereal sense of dread creeping up on Alessa’s senses. 

Nothing had changed outside the clothing shop. The monsters were still gone, the floor and walls still as filthy and ravaged as before. Everything was exactly the same. 

Or so it seemed. 

A peculiar smell wafted up to Alessa’s nose. She frowned, flaring her nostrils as the odor intensified. It smelled like…

The thunderous clang of force on metal blared through the hall. Alessa turned and stared in shock at the shutter blocking the exit way to the plaza. Something was pounding on the barrier, creating a massive dent in the sheet metal with each deafening blow. A long set of scissor-like claws soon broke through the barrier as Alessa watched in disbelief. Something was tearing through the shutter, something powerful enough to shred through metal like it were paper. The talons tore down the barrier in five distinctive slashes, until at last the shutter gave way. 

It fell through the gap with unflinching force, a mass of bulbous writhing flesh unlike anything Alessa had seen. She watched, revolted, as the creature pulled itself on two deformed limbs, leaving deep indentations in the shopping mall’s tiled floor. Her mind screamed at her to run, but she was frozen where she stood, rooted to the ground by the mesmerizing horror of the creature before her. And as she obtained a closer look, she was finally sure what it was her sense of smell was detecting. 

It smelled like burning flesh. 

If one were to only examine its front side, the creature was vaguely human, moving along its torso with the painstaking motions of a wounded being. It’s lower half however, was something out of a nightmare – a cocoon-shaped mass of twisted, deformed flesh. Curiously, various metal fragments were embedded in the monster’s horrible lower body. Alessa almost thought she recognized the spokes of a wheelchair buried deep within its skin. 

The chimera raised its head, and that was when it uttered a cry that shook Alessa’s petrified form to the core. It sounded like a woman’s scream, warped and distorted into something conspicuously monstrous. The roar almost seemed like a cry of pain and rage blended into one, as if the creature were suffering from some terrible agony no human being could even begin to imagine. Alessa covered her ears, nearly overwhelmed by the power of its fury. 

And then it struck her. 

The stench of burnt flesh, the charcoaled pigment of its form; the arms that were little more than incinerated bones with barely any skin to them…the torso that resembled a woman’s bandaged chest, grossly misshapen by the injuries inflicted upon it. And most alarming of all, the long ebony hair flowing from the demon’s scalp, somehow untouched amidst the ruins of living flesh. 

It was _her_. 

How had she not seen it before? The hair, the burns, the mixture of terrible anger and agony…it was her. It was Alessa. Alessa as she once was. 

Suddenly it all came back to her. The monster neared ever so closer, its claws scraping massive slash marks along the ground. But Alessa didn’t move. She was awash in a sea of memories. The vivid recollections surged out of nowhere, overtaking even her ability to see the assailant clawing its way to attack her. One by one they flowed through her mind.

_The unbearable, overpowering heat of the fire as the flames enveloped her…_

_The smell of her own burning flesh…_

_The mocking laughter of her own mother as her skin was seared off her body; melted, blackened beyond recognition while she pleaded for help that never came…_

“No,” Alessa whispered, tears sliding down her cheeks. She would not go through that again. Remembering was hard enough. She would not be subjected to this mockery of her pain and suffering. “NO!” 

The scream she let out was one of pure grief and anguish. Before she was even aware of it, she had pointed her weapon directly at the malignant creature. She fired repeatedly at the monster’s face, emptying bullet after bullet into its skull, until she heard the betraying click of the gun’s empty chamber. Even so, her hands continued to fire the weapon for several seconds, consumed by fury and outrage. 

The creature howled in agony. Blood and gore dripped from the gaping wound on its forehead, flowing down the demon’s face to pool on the ground. But the creature did not fall as she expected. Instead it remained upright, struggling to maintain itself on its hideously immolated arms. A series of low guttural noises emerged from deep within its throat, and Alessa realized to her horror that the monster wasn’t just still alive, it was regenerating; refusing to die…

…Exactly as Alessa once had, entirely against her will. 

In mere seconds, it was as if Alessa had never fired a round. The creature lunged at her with renewed vigor, striking with the fury of a monstrous array of rage. Alessa barely sidestepped the inhuman blow. It missed her by mere inches, carving out a substantial chink of the floor as the claw struck the ground in rage. 

Alessa wanted nothing more than to keep firing at the abomination; to see its repulsive features crumble under a hail of bullets…to see it collapse into a bloody, destroyed carcass. She wanted to see it dead – no, _annihilated_! The irrational part of her brain told her to reload her weapon and fire at this offensive representation of her misery until its very existence was wiped from the face of this world. Let it try to heal itself in vain; let it suffer and bleed just as Alessa had! 

But, the logical side of her told her that it would be foolish to stay here and fight. She would do nothing by squandering her precious ammo on this beast. The handgun was her only means of defense against the servants of this encroaching darkness, unless she counted her switch blade. Without it, she would be left at the mercy of this insane living nightmare. 

She hated to leave from this confrontation. But she had no choice. It was either retreat or risk losing control and possibly her life. 

Alessa swiftly fled the trap that was this section of the mall. She moved with no regard to caution or safety, attempting to put some distance between herself and her ungodly doppelganger. 

But her adversary had other ideas. 

To the young woman’s utter dread, Alessa heard the scratching noises of claws on tiling as the monster gave pursuit. She risked a glance back to gauge how far away her enemy was. What she saw was not optimistic. The creature was at the barely raised shudder separating the two segments of the mall. Its low height proved to be an advantage: it maneuvered easily beneath the barrier. Worse yet, it was far from slow. For a creature crawling on the ground it moved unnervingly fast, almost like the constant suffering it was in provided it with an extra boost of energy. It was determined to take out its misery on something tangible, and Alessa was its unfortunate prey. 

As Alessa rounded the corner, a jarring force suddenly slammed into her. Her gun went flying by the wayside, leaving her to face her situation with only her bare hands. The snarling beast stood over her with ravenous intent. Trickle of saliva dripped from its jaws as it prepared to sink its teeth into its latest capture. Alessa recoiled at the creature’s foul breath. She quickly grabbed the sides of the demon’s jaws before it lunged, trying to stop the clamping of said jaws that would surely devour most of her face in one piece. 

The canine’s paws dug into her chest. It was right on top of her, struggling for supremacy against its defiant prey. Alessa cursed viciously to herself. If she could only bring up her knees from underneath it and kick the damn thing away…

The strain on her arms was enormous. The creature’s jaws were incredibly powerful. It took everything Alessa had to just barely hold them apart. Her arms trembled from the strenuous effort. Alessa gritted her teeth. The pressure on her arms was only increasing, and she was already tiring from the exertion. 

And only mere yards away, her doppelganger approached. 

Alessa heard its groans of distress-filled anger getting closer every second. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the looming shadow on the wall, foretelling the arrival of the gruesome sight to follow. This enemy was relentless; Alessa knew she had to end this little predicament she was in and get the hell out of there before that _thing_ reached her. 

Grimacing at what she was about to do, Alessa dug her fingers into the jaws of her attacker. The demon howled in pain as her nails broke through its putrid skin. It refused to relinquish the struggle, but the more it fought, the tighter Alessa squeezed. Moisture surrounded her fingers as they borrowed deep inside the monster’s rotting flesh, and with a look of grim determination, she attempted to pull the demon’s jaws apart. The dog resisted; Alessa gave a cry of frustration. 

Perhaps it was the stress of the situation motivating her body to harness any and all of its untapped strength. Or else, it may have been the desperate nature of the situation bringing forth a surge of adrenaline which gave her an extra boost of strength. Either way, Alessa’s will triumphed. The monster found itself quickly losing the struggle as Alessa pried its slime covered jaws away from her body. And then, a sickening crack pierced the air as the demon’s jaws were snapped back forcefully by Alessa’s iron grip. Its body slackened, allowing the raven-haired woman to seize the opportunity. With a vicious kick she threw the rancid beast off her body.

Alessa wasted little time in retrieving her gun. The hideous dog attempted to attack, but the creature was clearly disoriented from its injury. Its cranial jaws were hanging lifeless from its neck, and it appeared to have some trouble even getting to its feet. Alessa didn’t wait around to see if it recovered. Counting her blessings, she sped away from the battleground. 

The demon hound tried to give pursuit. But its injury was apparently more debilitating than Alessa thought. It legs failed to serve it and the creature would try to make it to all fours only to fall down again on the ground. Little did it know its fate awaited mere inches away. The dog tried one last time to rise to its feet, but its effort was in vain as it fell to the ground once more. 

And then the doppelganger was on it. 

With one mighty slash of its arm the female demon sent its prey flying. It struck the wall with a sickening crunch, sliding down boneless to the floor. Alessa risked a look backwards just in time to see her doppelganger looming over the wounded creature’s body. The demon barely raised its head and none of its body below that moved; Alessa suspected it had broken its neck. And then, something happened that completely revolted Alessa’s stomach. With no prior warning, the doppelganger vomited a repulsive reddish brown substance onto the hellhound’s broken body. Immediately a cloud of steam rose from the creature’s form as the substance proceeded to eat through its torso at an alarming rate, burning and melting its bandaged flesh with impeccable ruthlessness. 

Alessa turned from the stomach-churning display and continued running. She couldn’t watch anymore. It was then she heard something she would never, ever forget: the chilling cry of the doppelganger’s victim as the acid wreaked its deadly toll. The demon howled in monstrous agony as the bandaged flesh was viciously seared off its body in a bubbling mass of tissue. Finally the dog went limp. 

Alessa didn’t look back once. She didn’t feel, didn’t think about anything else except finding a way out of this lunacy. She did not stop until she reached a miraculous haven in the most unexpected of places nearby. 

 

~

 

Alessa did not relax immediately upon entering the unanticipated sanctuary. She startled when she heard the haunting roar of her gruesome twin echo from the outside. She stood with her weapon drawn, ready to attack anything that came through the door. Several minutes passed; Alessa stood her ground. Her heart thumped loudly in her ears, still driven by the adrenaline coursing through her veins. After a while, it appeared that activity had tempered off on the outside. Still, she remained cautious. Better safe than sorry. 

Only when it became apparent that no unconscionable assailant was going to burst through the door did the brunette finally lower her guard. 

Alessa breathed an enormous sigh of relief. That was a close one – far too close for comfort. Had she not snapped that demon’s jaws when she did, or had the doppelganger been quicker in reaching them…

She shook away the unsettling thoughts; no use in worrying about what-ifs. She was thankful to be alive and that was that. 

It seemed at last she had a respite from the madness. Despite the lack of danger though, her heartbeat was still pounding in her chest. She was riding on an emotional high, and as the adrenaline faded from her system, it was replaced by an overpowering weariness. What was she doing here? She was killing herself trying to find an escape route from this place, and for what? Was there even a way out of here? There certainly didn’t seem to be. Everywhere she turned she found herself staring a dead end in the face. This place was like a maze. A horrible, deranged, inhumanly sadistic maze…and one with no available exit in sight. 

Alessa leaned against a nearby wall, not caring that it was streaked with the same omnipresent decay as everything else in this hell. She slid tiredly to the ground, letting her gun fall at her side. 

God, she almost wished she’d gone with that detective back when he confronted her at the phones. Maybe then…maybe then she wouldn’t have gotten caught up in this mess. For god sakes, she was only a twenty year old girl! What was she supposed to do against a fucked up situation like this?

Alessa tried not to give in. She felt a tidal wave building and tried her best to hold back the rush of emotions. But it was too much. It was too much and she was tired; oh so tired. She buried her face in her forearm, since her hands were coated with the blood of the demon she had mangled. 

It wasn’t long before the tears came, with only the silence of the nightmare world to register her sobs. 

 

~

 

She didn’t know how long she stayed there, pouring out her frustrations. Eventually the tears came to an end and she shakily got to her feet. She wiped her eyes with her forearm, not wanting to get the stuff on her hands anywhere near her face. As her vision returned to normal, Alessa was able to get a clear glance at the place where she had taken refuge.

The former Happy Burger was completely destroyed. Were once there were tables, chairs and booths, there was now an open dilapidated space with only one splintered table in the center. The countertops and condiments were gone, replaced by vacant decay and corruption. Indeed, the entire area behind the order counter was sealed off by sheets of rusted tin. Alessa could only imagine what lay inside. 

Were someone to examine the restaurant without seeing its prior state, they would have no way of telling it was ever a lively fast food shack where people relaxed and indulged their appetites. 

Alessa searched for anything that might provide an alternate way out. Things looked pretty hopeless until she noticed something that she had missed before: a ladder, hovering several feet over the lone table in the room. 

A small smile formed on Alessa’s face – finally a break amidst all the insanity. 

Climbing onto the table, she made a jump for the ladder. No luck the first time. She tried a second time and a third. Nothing; the ladder was too far out of reach. A fourth attempt resulted in the table sliding a few inches along the ground, causing Alessa to nearly fall off the surface. Fortunately she ended up on her knees, holding on tightly to the edges to steady herself. 

“Whoa. Almost killed myself there,” Alessa muttered. She stared up at the ladder. It looked imposing as ever, a good foot and a half away from her grasp. 

“Shoot,” the young woman swore. The ladder was simply too far out of reach. If only she had something to pull it with…

Suddenly it hit her. She _did_ have something to pull it with. _The hanger!_

She took out the clothes hanger she somehow managed to stuff inside her backpack. Uncoiling its familiar form, she straightened out the hanger into a single long wire, then twisted the end on one side into a suitable makeshift hook. Alessa surveyed her improvised tool approvingly. Now she was ready to bring down that ladder. 

Alessa climbed back onto the table. Once again, she tried to obtain a grasp on her lower end of the ladder. It took a couple tries, but eventually, the makeshift tool hooked successfully onto the end of the ladder. Alessa gave a silent “yes!” of triumph as she pulled the ladder downwards. Once it was secure, she was ready to climb up into another area of the mall. 

But there was a problem. 

Funny that she hadn’t noticed how much blood was on her hands, until now. Her hands were absolutely covered with the pungent life force. The substance was sticky on her skin and it was drying fast. A few minutes more and she would be hard pressed to scrub it off under present conditions. 

The blood taunted her with its reminder of what she had done; how vicious she had become in the spur of the moment. Alessa shivered from its crimson hue on her skin. It was poisonous; she could almost fell it burning through her pores, infiltrating its way into her system. She had to get it off. 

Alessa wiped her hands on the sides of her jeans. But the blood would not come off. She tried rubbing it off using the rough denim material of said jeans. When that didn’t work, she attempted a more desperate method. Her behavior became increasingly frantic as she resorted to using her own fingernails against the substance, clawing harshly at her skin with the desperation of a person pushed too far, too soon. When the effort proved to be in vain, she hopped off the table and began scraping her hands against the table’s hard, uneven surface. 

Again her efforts resulted in failure, and she slammed her fists on the table in outrage. 

Was this some sick joke on the part of this place; yet another sadistic minded attempt to send her over the edge? 

Trembling with barely-suppressed rage, a growl of enormous frustration emanated from her throat. Why couldn’t she get the blood off her hands?! 

Alessa stared at her crimson covered palms. There had to be some way of scraping this stuff off. She would not be marked permanently by the blood of some foul, degenerate abomination. Her backpack went crashing to the flood, a victim of the smoldering ire that had taken grip of her out of nowhere. 

The contents of her knapsack lay spilled on the floor. Somehow the bag had been opened despite the zipper being securely closed the last time Alessa checked. An odd occurrence to be sure, though not very surprising given the weirdness of this place. Crouching low to the ground, Alessa sifted through the contents of the book bag. There wasn’t much to speak of: a couple cases of handgun ammo, the bottle of bleach she’d acquired earlier, the glint of her self-defense knife…

Alessa paused. It could work, couldn’t it? Maybe if she was really careful with the edge of the blade…

Suddenly she realized exactly what she was contemplating. She feverishly shook her head, trying to clear away the unreasonable idea. What was she thinking? Using a knife wouldn’t take away the blood, it would just draw out some of her own. God, what the hell was wrong with her, that she would even contemplate doing something like that even for an instant? 

And she had contemplated it. For one moment, she truly did consider picking up the knife and taking it to her skin. 

She had to get out of here and soon. This place was driving her insane, and if this was only the start of that insanity, what would she do if the situation even worse than it was now? Would she consider using that knife for something other than self-defense or scraping off dried blood? She certainly hoped not. This place could easily drive one to insanity, but Alessa prayed she would retain enough self-control not to try that alternative if it came to that. How depressing would it be if she never made it out of here, and _that_ was her fate after everything she went through?

Returning her focus to the book bag, it was then that Alessa noticed something she had virtually forgotten about amidst the encounters with all those demons. 

Laying at the edge of the backpack’s opening, only an inch away from rolling was the mysterious bottle labeled simply as a “health drink”. Alessa opened the small jar and took a whiff. It smelled like mineral water, emphasis on the mineral part. She stared dubiously at the bottle. There could be anything in there ranging from a harmless (and worthless) drink to acid. 

Pouring a minute amount of the substance on the ground, she waited for the first negative effect to manifest. Nothing happened. There was no smoke, no sizzling; no indication of something burning. A positive sign…perhaps. Still not one hundred percent convinced, she poured a few droplets onto her right pants leg, and when the denim material didn’t burn, she tipped the smallest little drop on one of her palms. 

It was a little cold, to be sure. Other than that, there seemed to be no negative effects. _Okay, I’m convinced_ , Alessa thought. She proceeded to liberally pour the health drink over her blood-stained hands…and received an enormous shock when a freezing stinging sensation spread throughout every inch of them. Alessa yelped and dropped the amber brown bottle, which amazingly enough, didn’t break upon hitting the floor. It rolled along the ground spilling the remainder of its contents while Alessa clutched at her burning hands. 

Mentally she screamed up a storm. What the hell was this stuff?! It was like she had dipped her hands in liquid nitrogen and boiling hot water at the same time – she half expected a billowing cloud of smoke to rise up from her skin at any moment. 

And then, and suddenly as it appeared, the pain was gone. Alessa examined her hands in sheer disbelief. Everything was perfectly intact, and surprisingly enough, the blood staining her skin had completely melted away. Even more incredible was what she discovered upon looking closely at the palm of her right hand.

Up until this moment, there had been a small cut from yesterday which she got at home and which hadn’t completely healed. No longer. The cut had disappeared with no trace that one had ever been there. 

“Wow. I guess this stuff really does work,” Alessa thought aloud with just a bit of reluctant awe. It was a shame it had been wasted on scrubbing her hands clean. Still, at least that unnerving shade of crimson was finally gone. 

It seemed somebody was looking out for her. The question was: what were the intentions of that somebody? Did they want to help her survive this game or were they just teasing her with the illusion of hope while she headed blindly to her doom? 

There was no way of knowing, of course. All Alessa knew for sure was that she no longer had to stare at that incriminating bloodstain. 

Wearing a much calmer (and slightly satisfied) expression, she began to climb the ladder straight into the unknown. 

 

~

 

How had this happened? Alessa wondered as she climbed the ladder presumably leading up to the second flood. The day started out normally. She had breakfast with her parents, she spent the morning playing video games, and when the afternoon came, she decided to go spend some time browsing at the mall. And then things went completely to hell. 

She still didn’t remember falling asleep back in the normal world. Even now she was puzzled as to how it happened. Yet it was clear to her that the ensuing nightmare – that twisted, horrible dream – was only the beginning.

From the moment she went back into the mall after encountering that detective, she was heading down a path into hell incarnate. Alessa wished she had crawled under the van in the alley or tried to climb over the fence there. While she couldn’t be sure she would have avoided this horror, anywhere would be better than this dreadful place. She felt like one of the victims in that “Jigsaw” movie, trying desperately to find a way out of this self-enclosed deathtrap before it killed her. 

She was tired, she was sore from all the running and fighting, and she was sure at least a couple hours had passed since she awoke downstairs. And she hadn’t even made it out of the mall yet. Lord only knew what awaited her outside. Hell, Lord only knew what awaited her on the second floor. 

She wanted to go home. But now she was beginning to wonder if she would ever see her home again. 

Was she going to die in this place?

Alessa hugged herself as she took the first tentative steps into the shopping mall’s second level. The air was absolutely frigid, as if she was walking through death itself. It chilled her to the bone, making goose bumps rise on every portion of her skin. A patch of fog lingered in the air with every breath she took. The area was eerily quiet, though she swore she heard some howling in the distance. 

Probably one of those demon hounds…

Fortunately there didn’t appear to be any monsters around. That didn’t mean everything was peachy. 

If the downstairs level was bad, then the floor she was on now was infinitely worse. At least the downstairs area retained some measure of familiarity in the layout. This new environment resembled nothing less than an image out of someone’s absolute worse nightmare. There was virtually no light other than that of her flashlight, and even the actual floor itself was gone, replaced by a kind of rusted metal laid out in panels to form the ground. Each step she took echoed loudly on the metal plates. She hesitated to take more than a few at first; the sections looked liked they were barely strung together and would definitely not support themselves under her weight. Only when they did not collapse under her feet did she feel free to move about more quickly. 

She felt a twinge of excitement upon seeing the escalators – maybe she had finally found a way out of here! That excitement disappeared when she saw the state they were in. The escalators did at first appear to lead down to the plaza area. Or rather, they would have, had they not had the bottom half of their sections torn off. Based on the twisted wreckage of their remains, it seemed that some incredible unknown force had literally ripped the lower halves of the escalators off. The area below was ominously dark, and Alessa shuddered to think what would happen if she fell. 

As she pondered what to do next, the silence was broken as a nearby screen suddenly blared to life. Alessa turned to realize that it was a TV set mounted behind the plate glass display of a shop. Inexplicably, the television had somehow been turned on despite no one except Alessa being around. 

Standing a couple feet away, Alessa peered into the TV screen. At first all she saw was static. Soon however, she jumped back slightly as a hazy image suddenly flashed on the screen. The image went by far too quickly for her to tell what it was. Within a few moments though, more images began appearing on the screen. Each was but a flicker of something indiscernible until the pause between each one was short enough for Alessa to distinguish the barest of details. 

A steady image started to form. It looked like the inside of someone’s house, though the ‘snow’ obscured any more than that. Gradually some sound began to filter in through the speakers…

“Jul…glad to see…Have to…out of here…He’s coming…”

Alessa drew a sharp intake of breath. She recognized that voice. It was one she hadn’t heard in a long time.

“Cybil!”

It had been years since she heard from the police officer who helped her and her father out, during what seemed like a lifetime ago. But what was she doing here now? Was this some echo of the past, or a warning about something occurring in the here and now? 

The transmission resumed; Alessa listened closely.

“Alessa…Where’s…have to find her…” A pause, and then Cybil’s frantic voice came over the static. “He’s here!”

There was a sudden burst of gunfire, followed by the sound of someone screaming Cybil’s name in horror. Alessa’s heart nearly stopped when she realized the panic stricken voice was her mother’s. There was a dull thud which sounded disturbingly like a body hitting the floor, and then she heard something that was the most unsettling, most intimidating thing she had experienced thus far: the ominous sound of a heavy blade being dragged along the ground. 

_Oh no…_

Alessa went cold. Every drop of blood in her body froze in her veins. Never had she heard anything more petrifying than that grating scraping of metal on floor. Because she knew what it meant, and there was no denying the reality of the situation any longer. The transmission flickered out entirely, replaced by nothing but continuous static. It didn’t matter. She knew who was behind this now. With that single menacing noise, everything added up in a way it hadn’t prior to this. 

She recalled the creature from the elevator which was neither a human nor a monster like the others. How had she not seen it before? The consistent decay, the creatures conjured up out of nowhere to attack her at every corner, and now the sound of a monstrous weapon which Alessa had only previously heard in her darkest nightmares.

It was _him_. 

He was here, in this hell, directing its every move; guiding its tricks and terrors against Alessa with unflinching callousness. Judge, jury and executioner, all rolled into one. And that woman she encountered in normal world, before she got trapped in this alternate dimension? She was one of his agents, no doubt sent to make sure his prey had indeed fallen into the net its repulsive powers had cast. 

And now he was at her home as well…

With renewed determination, Alessa took off into the darkness. She had to find a way out of here and get back home, to where Cybil and her mother were. They were in danger – there was no doubt about it. Alessa had to help them, and that meant solving the riddle of this oversized puzzle box before too much time went by. 

If it meant tearing through this with the same level of ruthlessness _he_ displayed, then so be it.


	6. Obstacles and Memories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Disclaimer: Silent Hill belongs to Konami.**
> 
>  
> 
> **AN: This chapter marks the first major mention of my original characters, which shows just how far this world has deviated from the canon. As for who are Chris and Julie, let's just say they're residents of Silent Hill for now. Saying more would just be spoilin' my other story story which I plan to post someday, "Ascension of the Damned", which is very Order-heavy.**
> 
> **Don't worry, Harry is still around. ;-)**

**Chapter 5: Obstacles and Memories**

**Alternate Central Square - Part 3**

 

Once when Alessa was five years old, she was the victim of a vicious attack by a large dog. It was an utterly terrifying experience, and one that had left an indelible mark on the young woman’s life. 

Alessa had been playing outside her house when the savage assault occurred. The dog had come out of nowhere and clamped down with ferocious resolve onto the little girl’s leg. She’d immediately cried out for help, and tried to get away, but the dog was too strong for a five year old to drive back alone. The terrified screams startled Alessa’s parents, who soon realized in horror that a ruthless dog was trying to chew off their daughter’s leg. 

Chris was the first to act. He instantly ran over in an attempt to pry the animal off his daughter, but the dog was far too strong for that. Julie joined in the effort, to no avail. They screamed for help in the hopes that someone would hear, but for some inexplicable reason, none of the neighbors came outside to lend a hand. Knowing time was of the essence, Chris sent Julie inside to get something, anything, he could use against the beast. Julie was reluctant, not willing for an instant to leave her daughter at the mercy of a vicious predator. However, she knew someone had to call 911, and there was no way Chris would risk his wife getting mauled as well. 

Julie had gone inside and grabbed the first thing she could from the kitchen drawer – a hammer. After calling 911, she then bolted back outside and passed it to Chris, who proceeded to strike the animal as hard as possible. It took several tries, but finally the dog released its hold on Alessa. A brutal strike to the head did the trick, and the creature died soon afterwards. The frantic parents took no chances, though. They quickly ushered their daughter inside and tended to her wound while they waited for the paramedics to arrive. 

To this day, Alessa still wasn’t sure what breed of canine had been responsible for the attack. The memories were foggy after so long, thanks in part to all the anguish she had been through over those years. Pain, she had learned, was a good way of suppressing experiences one had no desire to remember. 

All she knew was that the incident had changed her outlook on dogs forever. Physically, Alessa was mostly fine, except for a six inch scar she retained on her left leg, right along the thigh. But the emotional and psychological damage she received were long-lasting. From then on, dogs were no longer something cute and cuddly to be laughed at. They were vicious predators that could do her serious harm in the blink of an eye, and she never once forgot it.

Her parents were affected too. Julie blamed herself for the whole ordeal. She had been keeping an eye on Alessa from inside the house, but she’d turned for one single moment and that was all it took for her daughter to suffer a horrific, life scarring experience. For a long time afterwards she was extremely reluctant to let Alessa out of her site even for an instant. As far as Chris went, the young father was badly shaken at how easily he could have lost his daughter had they not come to her aid fast enough. 

The incident also changed the dynamic between the Gillespie family and their neighbors. They had asked for help in their time of need and nobody had responded, even though Chris knew some of them had been watching from inside. From them on, he was forever an enemy of them. He had tolerated them before, but combined with the torment his daughter endured from their kids at school, he now hated them with a vengeance. 

Since that time, Alessa had retained an instinctive apprehension for large dogs, one that fourteen years and countless other experiences couldn’t entirely erase. She kept her distance and generally tended to avoid them whenever possible. 

That didn’t mean she actually hated large dogs. At heart she knew it was the owners who were ultimately responsible for their animals, and some dogs were more dangerous than others. She wasn’t comfortable around them, but she didn’t bear them any will. 

And she certainly didn’t want to see them treated with the sadism on display before her. 

The creature was lying on a table in front of her. Its body was placed on a platter, as though it were the main course in some twisted five star meal. Alessa shook her head in mute astonishment. The smell coming from the creature was awful, and the sight was even worse. There were no distinguishing marks on the body that indicated a gunshot wound or any other source of trauma besides the obvious. Alessa didn’t need one. Somehow she knew instinctively that the dog had been burned alive, roasted horrifically for nothing more than someone’s sick, psychotic pleasure.

What kind of sick, demented human being would do something like this? This was monstrous and despicable, and it matched nearly anything she had seen thus far. And if that weren’t enough, whoever did this had gone to the trouble of laying out the poor animal in the manner of a gourmet meal, as though he or she really intended to eat their gruesome victim. There was even a large chunk of flesh carved from the middle of the body, ready and eager to meet someone’s approval. 

It nauseated Alessa to her core, and for the nth time thus far, she had to fight to keep the contents of her stomach in check. This wasn’t what she expected when she wandered into this abandoned restaurant, and it angered her greatly to realize that someone could do this to a defenseless animal. Silently she vowed that if she found the sadistic bastard behind this, she was going to shoot first, no questions asked. 

Tearing her eyes away from the grotesque sight, Alessa examined the rest of the restaurant. Like every other part of the mall, it was covered in a layer of grime and decay. But there was something different about this one. Unlike the other areas, this part had a wide array of windows stretching across the wall to the right, enabling her to finally get a good look at the outside environment. And what she saw took her breath away. 

Outside was a large building opposite the structure of the mall, and to Alessa’s utter horror, the building was coated in the same rusted filth present all over the mall. As was the building next to it, and the one next to that. She could barely believe her eyes. It wasn’t just the shopping center. Every part of the environment had been taking over by the darkness that grew and extended itself almost like an entity. Which could only mean one thing: she truly was in another realm of existence, some place beyond the reality she and everyone else in the world called home. 

She had suspected of course, but seeing the outside world give confirmation with its ruin and creepy horizon was an entirely different situation. 

Alessa’s hopes began to sink into a pool of despair. Even if she escaped from this place, she would still be stuck in a foreign world as alien to her as anything the best science fiction and horror writers could imagine. And if there was an abundance of those creatures here in the mall, how many were waiting outside the ‘sanctuary’ of this place, eager to welcome a new prey to sink their teeth into?

Out of sheer frustration, she brought her fist down on of the tables. Why was this happening to her? Hadn’t she been through enough in the past sixteen years? 

No response was forthcoming. Alessa knew she wouldn’t find the answers here in a dingy restaurant with soot-stained windows. 

The contents of the establishment were not of much interest. There was a large cabinet in the back filled with bottles of wine, brandy and other alcoholic beverages. Alessa wasn’t much of a drinker. In fact, she had yet to have a single alcoholic beverage in her life. She sure wasn’t going to drink something from an alternate dimension either. 

There was a pot with a semi-open lid on the stovetop. One sniff of the pot told the young woman she had better not take a look inside. The smell was absolutely foul; Alessa shuddered to think what lay inside stewing. Last but not least, there was a solitary health drink sitting on the kitchen counter. Having seen the curative effects of the liquid earlier on, Alessa quickly snatched it up.

_I guess that’s it then_ , she thought to herself. Nonetheless, she got the feeling that she was missing something. Maybe she should take a second look around…

A loud thud snapped her out of her thoughts. Alessa immediately turned her attention upwards – it had come from the ceiling. Or more accurately, the roof on this part of the shopping center. Something was up there. 

She didn’t know why, but a chill suddenly went down her spine. Her hands began to shake, almost against their will. What was going on? There wasn’t any reason to be this petrified, was there? It was probably just another one of those monsters. 

Unless it was that doppelganger…

Another stomp, this one just as loud as before. Dust and minor bits of debris rained down from the ceiling as the heavy step was followed by several more. The footsteps seemed to be heading towards the exit. Alessa aimed her gun unsteadily at the ceiling. What the hell was up there? Was it waiting to ambush her as soon as she tried to leave?

The footsteps ceased. Alessa regarded the silence with an air of mistrust. She wasn’t about to be lured into a false sense of security. However, she had to get out of there eventually. She set foot cautiously towards the exit, eyes steady, hands never wavering from their aiming stance up above. She passed the roasted dog on the dinner table, not looking once at the hideous meal. Just a few more steps until she was in the clear…

The unseen creature struck. 

Alessa screamed as an enormous knife plunged through the ground in front of her, almost skewering her in half. She hurried to move away from the blade, realizing she had made a grave assumption about the enemy’s position. There was a monster present, but not where she expected. Not on the roof of the restaurant, but the second floor below it, where she had no way of detecting the creature’s movements. It was a façade, and Alessa had fallen for it hook, line and sinker. 

Again, the knife stabbed viciously through the floor. Alessa tripped as she tried to escape the fearsome weapon, though she continued to move towards the back of the restaurant. If there was one benefit to the enemy’s position, it was that he couldn’t pinpoint Alessa’s location either. All he could do was guess, which was evident by the random stabbings of the knife. The creature thrust the blade repeatedly through the floor, each blind attack getting steadily closer to its target. 

Out of desperation, his prey climbed onto the counter next to the stovetop. It would only be a matter of seconds until the knife reached the kitchen area; Alessa had no desire to see whether the monstrous weapon could pierce all the way up to her. She timed the intervals of the attacks carefully, taking note of the approximate seconds between each stab. If she was even a second off, she would be shish kebab. 

And when the moment was right, she took the risk of her life. 

Alessa leaped over the incoming weapon, landing barely three feet away from the blade. Over the pounding of her own heart, she heard the creature stalking her give a growl of rage at being thwarted by its prey. Alessa knew she had only seconds to make her getaway. It was then that something caught her eye, and she was amazed she hadn’t noticed it before. There was a shiny object on the same platter as the dog’s carcass, glistening with the eerie orange light from outside. It was a key, and it was right in the center of the dog’s charred stomach. 

The woman shuddered at touching the animal’s innards, but she had no choice. She quickly stuck her fingers into the cooked meat and retrieved the errant key, only seconds before a massive knife impaled the sordid feast. Alessa had no time to be relieved. She was out of there, running once again in fear from a nightmare she had absolutely no chance of overcoming. 

Her adversary had an advantage over her, and that wasn't a feeling she relished.

 

~

 

Once outside the transformed restaurant, Alessa grimaced at the pain radiating throughout her knees and her feet. She muttered a disgruntled swear as she bent down to rub her injured legs. _God, I really shouldn’t have done that_ , she thought. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but in retrospect, she should have just gotten on one of the damn tables. 

At least she has something for her troubles. She pulled out the key she retrieved from the barbecued canine. There was no label on the key, nor any numbers inscribed. The surface was a little charred, but none the worse for wear. Alessa wondered what it was for. Then she remembered a hallway she went through downstairs, where she encountered another of those lumbering giants with spiked arms. There was a locked door in the darkness there, and the lock just happened to be a perfect fit for this key. 

The next few parts of her journey proved to be uneventful. Prior to opening the locked door, she was met with a room that used to be an excellent jewelry store. She had seen several pieces worthy of interest in its prior state, but the only thing there now was a small velvet box in one of the display counters. Carefully avoiding the shattered glass, Alessa was bemused to find the thing inside the jewelry box was not a ring or a necklace, but a walnut. 

“A walnut?” Alessa thought aloud. Of all the things in the world the item could have been, what the hell could she do with a walnut? What kind of value could such a thing possibly have in this place? She couldn’t eat it – that was for sure. And what monster would be dumb enough to be bribed by such a tiny little thing? 

Oh well. Knowing the way this place worked, there probably was some use for it, bizarre as it seemed. Maybe she would find some nut-oriented puzzle or something. She stuffed the walnut into a pocket and went on her way. 

Just as she expected, the cooked key was a perfect match for the locked door. Beyond it was an unexpected, yet somewhat pleasant surprise. 

It was a diner. Or rather, the ravaged remains of a diner. The walls were discolored, the tables overturned, and the floor was flooded with the water pouring from a broken pipe. 

There was a long piece of piping sticking out of a wall. Alessa took notice of the rusted steel, realizing that she had found her first non-ammunition based weapon. The pipe was heavy and sturdy, and it looked quite durable. She cringed at the thick layer of corrosion coating the metal fragment, but there was no getting around that. While she preferred the handgun, this would do in a pinch if she ran out of ammo. 

Alessa pried out the steel pipe, turning it over as she held its formidable weight in her hands. She couldn’t wait to try it out on one of those freaks. 

She pressed onwards, picking up a bottle of detergent along the way. Another questionable item, though she barely paid it any mind – she had given up trying to figure out the logic behind this place. Eventually she came to an area that was rather odd at first. It was the hallway behind one of two doors, situated opposite each other at a dead end. There was an exhaust fan out in the corridor, on the upper center wall, which Alessa thought was a little strange. She supposed the building had to get ventilated somehow, but she wouldn’t have thought this…reality would be concerned with something like that. And there was something off about it too. For some unknown reason, it reminded her of something. Something vague and ominous. 

The right door was locked, so she took the left. Soon afterwards, she noticed there were tiny black specks floating in that second corridor. Alessa wasn’t sure what they were until she got a closer look…close enough for one to brush her arm with a distinctly fuzzy wing. Alessa instantly drew back as if burned by a flame.

They were moths. Hundreds of them, congregated in a menacing black wall that made it impossible for her to pass. She shuddered visibly over her entire body. 

Alessa hated moths; had ever since she was a kid. When she was only five, the other kids at school used to hide them in her book bag, so that when she opened it, the moths would fly right out in front of her face. Or, she’d get a handful of small fuzzy insects when she reached into the book bag for something. Worse, her gr…the woman who raised her mother insisted on giving her a set of dead moth specimens as a gift, knowing full well the effect they had on her. Things got so bad that Alessa reached the point where she would not sleep unless her mother stayed with her for an hour after bedtime. 

Things had not changed much over time. Her father knew a police officer who was bitten in the eye by a moth and was left completely blind in that eye; he needed surgery in order to restore his vision. And when Chris told that story to Alessa a few months after she came to stay with him, the old fear came back. Granted, it wasn’t exactly his fault; Chris didn’t know that a simple anecdote would re-establish a phobia from years past in his daughter. Unfortunately it did, and there was no fixing this particular screw-up. 

No, moths were definitely not a favorite thing in the former Gillespie’s life. She’d rather dive into a pack of demons than face a cloud full of moths alone, and unarmed. Fortunately things weren’t completely hopeless. She was becoming used to this place and the way it operated. It would not have placed the wall of moths in her path unless there was some way she could get past them. The question was, how?

She couldn’t shoot them down, that was for sure. And she didn’t have any bug spray on them. A flamethrower would work, but just her luck, there wasn’t one around. Stupid nightmare world with its crappy weapons…

_Think, Alessa, think_ , she told herself. Suddenly, she remembered the warning on the back of the bleach she found.

_“Do not mix with detergent. Mixing of the two chemicals may result in a toxic reaction.”_

Toxic reaction…

Alessa grinned. She knew what to do now. 

There was a bucket set just ahead of her. Kneeling down, she poured in the bleach first, emptying the whole plastic bottle. Tossing that aside, she added in the dreaded container of detergent. 

The fumes hit Alessa like a brick wall. She instantly covered her face to block the noxious vapors, holding back a scream as they still seared her face for the better part of a second. She got out of there ASAP, hoping beyond measure she hadn’t just burned her eyes out. Thankfully, the stinging sensation disappeared after a few seconds. Alessa released a painful breath, desperately sucking air into her lungs. _Stupid, stupid_ , she chided herself. She felt like smacking herself upside the head for that one. Didn’t she know to be cautious when dealing with dangerous chemicals?

Still, if it was that effective against her, those moths wouldn’t stand a chance. The question was, how to get it to them? The vapors had to spread beyond a few feet. 

The answer came to her within a fraction of a second. _The exhaust fan!_

Looking up at the fan, she finally realized why it had been placed in this particular location. This place was like a puzzle, or a math problem. Each item she found was but a piece of the whole, with its own distant purpose in solving the larger equation. 

She turned on the exhaust fan and waited for the poison to take its course. Then she gave it time to evaporate. After waiting for it to disperse, she went back inside and beheld her handiwork, covering her mouth just in case. It worked better than she could have hoped for. Lying on the floor were the remains of hundreds of moths, forming a layer of black that blanketed the floor. 

Free of the airborne threat, Alessa continued on her way. Corridors and dead ends passed, each more dangerous than the next. She didn’t let that stop her. Anything that got in her way was either sidestepped or gunned down without a flicker of hesitation. Although they still intimidated her, Alessa had to admit it felt good to take out her frustrations on those twisted abominations. Whether it was the thrill of victory or justification for her ordeal, it seemed to awaken some dark part of her she hadn’t touched in a very long time. 

A part of her she could easily grow to like…

 

~

 

She had entered the torture room. 

Alessa stared in revulsion at the devices encircling her in the chamber. The area outside was bad, with its pitch black darkness and fearsome assortment of beasts, but this particular room had an even grimmer aura about it than usual. It was obvious what this place was, and there was no doubt as to the use of the contraptions within. 

The blood soaked tables spoke of horror almost as chilling as those Alessa had encountered. Tiny grooves were set into the wooden restraints – indentations left behind by victims whose agony was so intense, they literally sunk their fingernails deep into the wood. One could almost imagine the victims strapped down to the tables, being ‘operated’ on by the devices scattered around the room. Saws, clamps, chains…it all looked like something straight from a medieval dungeon. 

These were human artifacts, created and utilized by men who sought to take out their sick, perverted fantasies of pain on innocent people. Alessa shook her head, reminded of the Inquisition, among other things. Monsters she could handle. She would never understand how human beings could willfully torture one another over things like religious differences. 

At the very center of the room was the symbol she had seen painted over various sections of the mall. The ancient crimson crest looked very out of place in the storage rooms before, but in here, it actually seemed to blend into the ghastly environment. It was fitting, she supposed, given the hideous nature of this chamber. 

Beneath the crest was perhaps the most ‘interesting’ contraption in the room: a rusted iron vice. Alessa wasn’t naïve. She knew the type of damage a vice could, and probably had done, to countless body parts. The thought of someone’s skull being crushed by the unyielding grip left her cold all over. However, the vice was the only object in the room with an actual practical purpose to it. There had to be a reason for its presence then. 

What could she do with a vice? She had nothing that required cracking open, did she? Unless…

The walnut from the jewelry shop came to mind. It seemed like an ordinary walnut at the time, but what if it wasn’t? What if there was something else inside the walnut? Something she needed to continue on her way?

Alessa took out the walnut and shook it. And sure enough, there was a loud rattling that indicated something was inside. Like a kid in a candy store, she set the walnut in the vice clamps with an unabashed glee. Taking hold of the device, she squeezed down on the walnut until she heard the distinct crack of the shell breaking open. She brushed aside the walnut crumbs, and there it was – a small round gemstone in a grayish white hue. 

Alessa’s eyes were curious as she carefully picked up the precious stone. She had seen this type of gemstone before. It was called a moonstone, and its name already gave away its purpose. 

She didn’t even have to think about it. She knew exactly where the object belonged. 

 

~

 

_“Mommy, what is that?” the five year old Alessa asked her mother._

_They were in the basement below the orphanage. Alessa came there often to visit with the other children in their order. This church was much smaller than she was used to. It wasn’t even a real church, just a small room with an altar in it._

_The symbol the child was referring to was a large circle painted in bright red ink above the room’s altar. Three smaller circles were inscribed in the middle of it, along with some odd writing Alessa could not identify. It looked like a bunch of weird triangles and scribbles done by another kid. The little girl shivered. Somehow she didn’t think this drawing was made by a child._

_“That is the symbol of our Lord,” Alessa’s mother replied. “One of Her symbols, I should say.”_

_“I don’t like it,” the little girl announced._

_Her mother frowned. “Alessa…”_

_“Mommy, it hurts when I look at it!”_

_“Don’t be ridiculous. It’s just a symbol, a sign of our faith. There is no possible way it can harm you.”_

_“But-”_

_“No buts. Alessa, I have told this before. Whenever we are in the presence of our Lord, you must be respectful of Her teachings. Understood?”_

_Alessa gave the barest of sighs. “Yes, mother.”_

_As her mother began to read from the scriptures, she moved in front of the drawing, partially obscuring Alessa’s view of it. The little girl focused on the words coming from her mother’s mouth, trying to ignore the pain in her forehead…_

 

~

 

The symbol loomed overhead like a shadow. It was many times larger than before this time. Painted in faded black writing, its glow had diminished down to nothing. 

That didn’t mean it didn’t bother her. 

Alessa held her forehead as she stared at the thing. She knew the symbol was from her past. That flashback was proof enough of that. She also knew its meaning was locked somewhere in her mind. Why couldn’t she remember it?

She lowered her eyes from the massive emblem, and focused instead on what was relevant to her situation at this moment. This was it: the end of her journey through the mall. The large door in front of her had bothered her ever since she first saw it on the third floor. Situated in the same area as the gourmet restaurant, the door was decorated with a moon and stars motif scrawled in subtle red ink. Below the etching was a pocket for a small round object. 

Alessa held up the moonstone she’d retrieved from the walnut. Though she wondered just how the hell the thing had ended up inside a _walnut_ , there was no denying its purpose. She had played enough video games to know that something vital always lurked behind the big door. And then there was the message also written on the door…

_By the light of the moon shall this door be opened, and the Guardian unveiled  
from his lair._

Alessa shrugged. _Seems fairly obvious_ , she thought, placing the moonstone in its rightful indentation. She only hoped “he” wasn’t the guardian the message was talking about. Immediately after she set the stone, a massive roar swept through the area with uncanny force. Alessa dropped her steel pipe on the ground, startled out of her wits by the unexpected shock. Now she was even more worried. If that wasn’t a sign of something huge and monstrous, she didn’t know what was. 

Nonetheless, there was nowhere else to go. Gathering her courage and her thoughts of escape, Alessa crossed the threshold.


	7. Interlude - The Guardian of Central Square

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Disclaimer: Konami owns Silent Hill, and no money is made off this fic.**

**Interlude - The Guardian of Central Square**

 

Alessa descended into the darkness. She scaled down the ladder one rung at a time, holding onto the handle bars as tightly as she could. She was never a fan of heights, and she had to be at least one hundred feet above the ground. Well, assuming there was a ground to this place. 

Heading down, she saw the second floor and first floors of the nightmarish mall. Several monsters were still wandering around on each, searching blindly for any potential victims. Fortunately, the ladder was removed far enough from the floors that Alessa didn’t have to worry about the creatures attacking her. She heard a horrible familiar drilling sound in the distance, but she forced herself to ignore it. She couldn’t afford to let herself get distracted, even if those needle monsters scared the hell out of her. At this height, a fall would only mean a gruesome death.

Oddly enough, the ladder seemed longer than the actual mall! She shivered as she continued down into the inky blackness. She couldn’t help but feel that she was heading into a deep abyss, where the greatest horrors this place had to offer awaited her. As she climbed the impossibly long ladder, she thought back to the horrid encounter she barely avoided with those needle creatures only minutes prior…

 

~

 

_Darkness greeted Alessa outside the torture room. While the entire building was bathed in a lack of light, this part of the mall seemed even more ominous than usual – almost pitch black in obscurity. Were it not for her flashlight, she wouldn’t be able to see a thing. The whole scene reminded her of an abyss: yawning, lifeless, and never-ending._

_Immediately upon setting foot here, she hesitated. The air was calm, the area still to an unnerving degree. Something wasn’t right._

_Scattered over the ground were a number of holes where the floor had collapsed into ruin. She watched her step carefully, not wanting to fall headfirst into the void. The metal grating felt unbearably shaky under her feet. She hoped it wouldn’t choose this opportunity to give out under her. Alessa thanked her lucky stars she didn’t weigh that much._

_There was a faint hum growing in her ears. At first she thought it was he ears ringing, until she realized the sound was growing in pitch. She searched for the source of the noise, but it was all around her, and getting closer by the second. It sounded like a dentist drill, or a buzz saw, gearing up to slice something in half._

_Or would that be_ someone _?_

_Alessa covered her ears to block out the jarring noise. The ground beneath her hummed with the vibrations of the sound waves as they echoed off the metal. Whatever it was, its presence would be known soon._

_And so it was. Emerging from the shadows was a floating mass of tissue and metal, propelling itself through the air with nothing but sheer force of will. Its body spun on its axis like an inverted globe, with one long spike protruding from its stomach. It looked like a bee; one giant, malformed bee with…_

_With needles, Alessa thought in dismay. Huge four foot long needles serving as arms and legs. It was the creature from her dream, and it was not alone. Behind it were the forms of three other monsters heading her way. They were obviously following their leader with only one intention on their minds._

_Alessa didn’t bother aiming at them. She was clearly outnumbered and outmatched, as she doubted her feeble handgun would be enough to take down all four monsters quickly. And there was no way she was going to try hitting them with the pipe. Not with those blades spinning like they were._

_But the creatures were not going to let her go without a fight. They quickly gave pursuit. Alessa tried to run, but the holes littering the floor were a problem. She could not run nearly as fast as she usually did, lest she risk falling to her death. And that gave her enemy an edge. It was not an issue for the monsters, as they merely glided over the jagged openings. By sheer luck, the young woman managed to stay ahead. Alessa reached the exit in time, but there was a problem: the door was locked down tight._

_“Shit,” the raven beauty cursed, pulling at the doorknob for all it was worth. The only other exit was halfway across this floor. She would never make it with all those creatures following._

_The demons were getting closer. As the distance between them diminished, two of the predators dropped from the air and began pursuing their prey on foot. They seemed even faster on their ‘legs’ than they were floating over the ground, prompting Alessa to yank more viciously at the doorknob. It was an instinctive reaction, more than any real attempt to force the lock open. But the damn thing would not turn. On the other hand, the door itself sure looked flimsy…_

_In fact, it looked very much out of place with the wall, now that she noticed it. The rest of the mall had sturdy looking metal doors, while this one looked like it was made from wood. Almost as if it had been replaced…_

_There was barely any time to wonder about that, leaving her with only one course of action._

_“I really hope this works,” she muttered. If it didn’t, she was dead. Standing back from the door, she gave it as hard a kick as she could._

_Either she was very lucky, or Fate was on her side, because the gamble worked. The door blew open. Alessa moved to escape…_

_…And the creatures finally caught up with her. Alessa grabbed the steel pipe. She hadn’t wanted to fight these things, but there was no choice. Putting all her strength behind the blow, she swung the heavy pipe at the pack leader’s skull. There was loud crack as the pipe connected and the demon went flying back. Another of the beasts attempted a slash at its victim’s leg, only to be met with a thunderous blow that snapped its neck in half. Distracted by their writhing comrades, the remaining monsters offered no assault, giving Alessa the opening to escape their malevolent wrath._

 

~

 

She shivered as the images of those beasts lingered in her mind. She shouldn’t have escaped that. By all accounts, that crazy momentary plan of kicking the door down shouldn’t have worked. She had considered shooting the lock, until she realized it would never work in real life, and she would just end up blowing herself away. 

It was as close to being finished as she had come on this journey so far. The thought of being so close to death left her feeling horribly cold inside. So many things left to do, so many things left unsaid…one moment’s hesitation and that all would have vanished. It was unsettling beyond words to think about what would have happened, had she reacted only a second slower. She would never have seen her mother and father again, or any of the handful of friends she had accumulated over the years. She would never have gotten to do any of the things she had planned, and she would have died trapped in some foreign dimension with no way for anyone to know what happened to her. It was likely nobody would ever have retrieved her body. 

How horrible would it be for her parents to go the rest of their lives wondering what happened to her? With no knowledge of the cult’s involvement, they would never be able to find a way into this place. And regardless of what they did, the authorities would have ceased their investigations eventually. She would become nothing more than a memory, one that faded over time. To be forgotten like that was the worst fate Alessa could imagine. At least there was closure in death, when those close to you knew the circumstances of your demise. 

And that gave her all the determination she needed to keep going. She had to get out of this place, not just for her sake, but for that of those she loved. They had been given a second chance all those years ago, when her father saved her from the brink of death. She wasn’t about to waste it on some psychopathic deity and his little maze of horrors. 

Alessa finally reached the bottom rung of the ladder and hopped off. There wasn’t much to speak of. She was in some sort of underground pit. The ground was covered in lumps of coal, and they were warm. She could feel the heat pouring off them through her boots. It wasn’t enough to burn through the soles, but it was very noticeable. There was a large amount of open space, something which she found curious considering the lack of anything useful. 

To either side of her lay a wall with three immense holes. Alessa peered into the openings, but it was too dark to see what lay inside. What the heck was this place?

A burgeoning noise suddenly caught her attention. She couldn’t discern where it was coming from, but it grew louder and louder as the ground rumbled beneath her. Something was approaching, and by the looks of it, it was something huge. Alessa struggled to balance herself against the tremors, careful not to touch the hot coals on the ground. Meanwhile, the ladder she had used collapsed partially under the chaos, leaving her trapped in the derelict pit. She gave a frenzied mental curse, knowing that she had to deal with whatever was down here now. Suddenly, the fence covering the middle crevice was violently tossed aside, ripped off its hinges by the source of the commotion. Alessa’s jaw dropped, horror mingling with astonishment on her face as she at last beheld the source of the earthquake. 

To say that it was a giant worm would be a severe understatement. The thing was absolutely enormous, covered completely in freakishly scaled ash-colored skin. It was grotesquely burned in several places, the charred flesh barely clinging to its form. Large veins crisscrossed visibly underneath it skin, forming a network of ghastly pathways over its body. Its ribs were exposed, allowing her to look inside past the bones into the inner workings of the creature. She felt her stomach churn in revulsion upon seeing the hints of its internal organs.

The flesh over what she assumed to be its head opened as the creature unleashed a frightening roar, revealing a massive set of teeth. Bound together by a hideous web of gums, they exposed a grotesque mouth that reminded her of a set of chattering teeth, only on a much larger scale. Alessa instinctively took a few steps back.

It dwarfed everything she had seen before in this nightmare made flesh. This could only be the Guardian of the alternate mall, the one mentioned in that foreboding doorway. And it was not alone. 

By sheer chance she caught a glimpse of something moving at the top of the wall. She stared upwards at the concrete…

And there it was, the creature she had seen before in the elevator strangling that unidentified flesh. It crawled across the wall like a spider, head twitching sporadically in spasm. It was him. 

It was the Red god. 

A roar of the worm reminded her that she couldn’t afford to get distracted. The hulking beast moved in. With surprising speed it charged at its prey, forcing Alessa to leap out of the way. She narrowly avoided getting snapped by the mammoth jaws, which bit at the air her body had occupied seconds earlier. She fired several gunshots at the worm’s scaly carapace, but they didn’t appear to faze it. Rather than turning around, it slithered into one of the holes opposite her position. 

The young woman waited anxiously for its return. Trying to ignore the deity looming overhead, she focused on the darkened tunnels, attempting to determine which hole the monster would emerge from. The one to the far right proved to be the target. The worm crawled out and Alessa fired three more shots, but her enemy still didn’t react. Once more she moved out its path, lest she end up its latest meal. It vanished into another tunnel.

_Okay, just shooting it doesn’t work_ , she thought. There had to be some sort of weak point; a specific area she could target. But where? One thing was certain: unless she did something soon, she was going to end up as this creature’s latest meal. She couldn’t stay here dodging that hideous mouth forever. 

_The mouth…_

Alessa thought back years ago to her hometown. There had been a giant monster there too – a huge lizard born from her subconscious memories of a fairy tale she once read. Like the beast she was facing, the lizard was also invulnerable to bullets. At least on the outside. 

_That’s it!_ Alessa realized. A smile spread across her face. She knew what to do now. 

The trembling of the ground prefigured her adversary’s emergence from one of the tunnels. But this time she was ready for it. As soon as the worm opened its jaws, Alessa opened fire. Round after round struck the creature’s mouth with deadly precision. The monster grunted in pain. Its massive jaws slammed shut as it charged at the prey that had wounded it. 

She easily avoided its wrath. Sensing it was coming from the farthest opening, she waited to for the chance to fire again. She didn’t notice the creature up above watching her carefully, it’s head curiously still. Noting her intent, the creature gave a wave of its hand…

…And Alessa suddenly found herself glued to the spot. Chains had risen from the ground, encircling her feet with their bindings. The courage she had displayed ebbed away as she realized she was trapped. 

_No!_ Alessa screamed in mental protest and outrage. This couldn’t be happening; not now. The monster was taking its sweet time in reappearing, but she knew that respite wouldn’t last forever. She had to get out of these things, now! She pulled desperately at the chains, but they were too tightly wound around her legs. “Let go!” she pleaded, trying with all her strength to release herself. 

But the Red god was not feeling merciful today. The chains continued to hold their grip, and just as Alessa was getting frantic, the monster she’d been fighting chose to make its entrance. 

“Oh God,” she whispered, feeling the stirrings of terror in her heart. 

The monster glided towards her, leaving a trail of slime and dead flesh in its wake. It was almost arrogant in its deportment, if that could be said about such an unthinking creature; confident that its prey was within its grasp. 

“No…” Alessa reached for her handgun with trembling hands. She couldn’t move and she couldn’t shoot the thing while it wasn’t open. She would just waste her bullets and what good would the handgun do her then? The monster parted its ‘lips’ and shifted into an upright stance, towering over her like a giant about to crush an irrelevant insect. With the certainty of victory on its palate, it moved in for the kill. 

“NO!” Alessa screamed, shooting madly at the hideous mouth seconds before it devoured her whole. The bullets struck the creature’s throat, driving it back with a growl of rage. The creature was incensed at having its meal thwarted, and tried to move in on the human once more. Alessa fired three more shots, striking the beast in its teeth and gums. Wounded at close range, the creature closed its mouth and withdrew into one of the tunnels. 

Alessa knew she had bought herself some time. She just didn’t know how much. She quickly evaluated her options. The Red god’s intent was obvious: to keep her immobile in one place while her adversary gobbled her up in one bite. The steel pipe lay several feet away, and it was a blunt object to boot; it wouldn’t do her any good. She couldn’t fire at the chains either, lest she risk hitting one of her feet or shins. That left only one thing to attack. 

Aiming upwards, Alessa fired her remaining bullets at the humanoid being. The distance to cross was formidable, but the fates were on her side. Gunshot after gunshot struck the Red god’s body, piercing the creature’s unnaturally hued flesh. The creature wasn’t hurt, but it was annoyed enough to release its hold on the chains. The onyx shackles relinquished their grip on their captive, just in time for her to dive out of the way of the incoming menace. 

She screamed in shock as the hot coals seared her skin. The coals were getting warmer than they were before; already they felt hot enough to leave a mark on her. It wouldn’t be long before the temperatures reached a dangerous level of heat. She had to end this fight _now_. 

At least the master pulling the strings was gone. The deity had melted away into the shadows, far as she could tell; finally she was free to fight this giant on her own terms. 

Reloading her gun, she waited for the monster to come back. When it reappeared from behind, Alessa was ready. She fired three more shots into its mouth, striking the back of the throat. Her aim had improved dramatically over the past few hours, and it showed in the creature’s roar of pain. Again it retreated. But for all its size, the monster was not very bright. It was slow and predictable, and that gave its adversary an edge. It continued to fall headfirst into her trap, while she didn’t suffer so much as a scratch. Nine bullets later it was over. 

With a final massive roar, the creature fell dead to the ground, blood leaking copiously from its disfigured mouth. Suddenly, a white burst of light immersed the entire chamber. Alessa tried to block out the blinding light, but it penetrated through her eyelids, burning into her brain. It was like reality itself was dissolving all around her. The intensity was too much, and she felt her consciousness fading from the assault on her senses. Collapsing to the ground, she blacked out from the strain on her psyche. The last thing she felt was the heat of the coals beneath her, blazing at her bare skin. 

Up in the shadows, the creature crawling across the wall reveled in grim satisfaction. Mission accomplished.


	8. An Unpleasant Conversation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Disclaimer: Silent Hill is owned by Konami.**
> 
>  
> 
> **Warning: Sexual abuse, and mutilation in this one.**
> 
> **AN:** Surprise femslash in this one!

**Chapter 6: An Unpleasant Conversation**

 

_It wasn’t long before the kaleidoscope began. Images swirled at the periphery of her subconscious, appearing and fading too quickly for Alessa to identify. She felt like she was flying, her body floating across a limitless void. Gradually the pictures coalesced into one solid canvas, upon which was painted a very familiar setting._

_The young woman looked around as she regained control of her consciousness. She was in the Central Square Shopping Center, located just a few miles off the home where she and her family recently settled. Alessa frowned as she took in the commercialized surroundings. There was something off about seeing the stores in picture perfect condition. It felt wrong somehow, as though the shops should be more unclean than they were. It was a strange sensation, to say the least. Why should she feel that the stores would look better rundown and…?_

_And corrupted, Alessa thought._

_That wasn’t the only thing that was odd about the shopping mall. The area was deserted. No matter where she looked, all she saw was an empty place. What happened to all the people?_

_Something else caught the girl’s attention. It was this peculiar feeling growing in her stomach, washing away her worries. The doubts at the back of her mind melted away, to be replaced by a burgeoning lack of fear that left her unusually placid._

_And in an instant, all her questions disappeared. Suddenly it no longer seemed strange in any way for the mall to not be occupied. In fact, she felt that things could not possibly be better. Alessa walked the hall she was in feeling better than she had in days. She felt entirely at ease with her surroundings, like she could spend the entire day here and feel nothing but a wonderful sense of happiness._

_And she was not alone._

_Heather was beside her, looking every bit as comfortable as the onyx haired beauty she accompanied. Alessa had no idea where she’d appeared from; she hadn’t noticed anyone walking up to her from behind. Yet that didn’t seem to matter. She felt content merely to enjoy Heather’s company in the perfectly isolated mall._

_The two girls walked side by side, happily appreciating the fact that they were together, away from others, with no one to bother them or try to force them apart._

_“It’s nice to see it like this, isn’t it?” Heather remarked._

_“Yeah,” Alessa agreed. No crowds, no stress, no pushy security guards telling her they couldn’t kiss in public. Just she and her girlfriend, alone in a favorite place…_

_They came to the central atrium of the shopping center. Heather stood back a little while Alessa checked the place out. It looked the same as always. An octagonal flower bed was placed in the center of the plaza, the middle of which contained a somewhat decorative fountain that was the standard in so many malls across America. As with the rest of the locale, there was no trace of anything amiss._

_“Alessa?”_

_“Hm?”_

_“I’ve got an idea,” Heather smiled._

_“What is it?” Alessa asked curiously._

_Heather leaned in close and whispered in her ear._

_“Here?!” the other girl exclaimed, eyes wide as saucers._

_Alessa’s old friend had a devious smile on her face, one that sent shivers down Alessa’s body._

_Oddly enough, the idea didn’t seem unappealing despite the setting. Alessa took a glance down at the tiles behind her. There wasn’t anywhere else to go. This part of the mall didn’t have benches in it. She thought it over for a brief second. The floor was hard and not particularly inviting. But it would do. It would more than do._

_“Why not?” She answered, feeling unusually mellow about it._

_Brown and amber eyes locked as they approached each other. Taking one another by the hand, they allowed themselves to be lured into a kiss. Heather’s soft lips met Alessa’s as the girls closed the distance between them with exquisite gentleness. Alessa brought up her hand behind Heather’s neck, holding her close while they traded soft, loving gestures of affection. Gradually the kiss intensified until they were practically clawing at each other through their clothes._

_Somehow they ended up on the floor. There wasn’t exactly another place to do this on, but it wasn’t as bad as she expected. Alessa wasn’t worried about germs. The floor was spotless. Sterile even, which was kind of odd. The faint smell of cleaning solution and something else wafted in the air, tickling her nostrils. It looked like nobody had walked through there in days, long after it was cleaned. And if there were still germs on the tiles…well, that was what their clothes were for. Not to mention, the purifying power of a hot shower._

_Heather settled down gently so as to not bruise herself. This wasn’t her first choice of a love setting, but the warmth of having Alessa near made up for that. Her hands roamed down the girl’s body, trailing over her back to gently cup her waist. She kissed Alessa fervently, devouring the soft texture of her lips. They stopped momentarily to get some air, and then resumed their feverish make out session. Soon they paused again, even more out of breath than before. Heather was surprised when Alessa reached to unzip her jeans._

_“Me first?” she asked with a bit of bemusement._

_“Hey, you’re the one who suggested the idea,” Alessa replied._

_The pseudo-blonde girl squealed in delight. Her lover smirked at her enthusiasm. Though it had been Heather’s idea to do this, she clearly hadn’t expected her to take the initiative like this. It was nice to see they could surprise each other still._

_Alessa pulled down Heather’s jeans. Folding them neatly, she set them down behind her head in the form of a makeshift pillow. Heather smiled at the considerate gesture. There was nothing she liked more than when Alessa treated her gently. Smiling back at her girlfriend, the brunette leaned in for another kiss._

_Now in her underwear, Heather eagerly reciprocated. Their tongues danced a familiar rhythm in their mouths, one they had perfected over their months together. Alessa cuddled close to her, lying down on Heather’s right. She idly placed a hand on her collarbone, tantalizingly close to her breast, yet not enough to touch the pliant flesh. While their lips were occupied with the passionate kiss, Alessa’s hand drifted down to her abdomen. Being to the side of Heather’s body, she had easy access to the front of the blonde’s undergarment._

_Alessa rubbed Heather’s crotch through her panties. She started off slowly at first; this wasn’t intended to get Heather off, only to get her excited. And it worked like a charm. Heather moaned softly as Alessa caressed her sex while they kissed. When Alessa pulled away, there was a smile on the other’s face as she moaned quietly from her lover’s gentle touch._

_Heather briefly grabbed a hold of her wrist. Alessa knew this wasn’t because she wanted her to stop. Quite the contrary, actually. This was proven correct seconds later when she grasped at the dark blue of her underwear. Heather hooked her fingers under the material and pulled aside, exposing her sex to the open air._

_It was a blatant invitation to Alessa and she was not about to resist. Bring up her hand to her lips, she sucked on and ran her tongue over the digits before taking them back down to Heather. She wasted little time in going for her clit, applying the same gentle pressure she had before. Only now, it was her bare sex meeting Alessa’s hand. She rubbed Heather’s clit in an up and down motion, careful not to go too fast. Heather wrapped an arm tightly around Alessa. The other lingered around her waist, trying to resist the urge to add her own tough to her girlfriend’s effort._

_Alessa ceased her ministrations after several minutes. She pulled back and placed her hand on Heather’s chest, right between her breasts. Heather’s pulse was a strong and steady beat, slightly elevated from the excitement of Alessa’s sensual strokes. The blonde was warm from her touch. Little beads of sweat would have been forming on her forehead, if not for the air conditioned atmosphere of the mall._

_There was a moment as the two girls locked glances. An unspoken message passed between them, one the brunette immediately picked up on. Heather wanted more._

_Her girlfriend wasn’t going to deny her. Alessa slinked down Heather’s body until she reached her slim companion’s sex. Alessa grinned wickedly at her girlfriend, knowing how teasingly close she was to what Heather wanted done. Grabbing the sides of elastic, she pulled down Heather’s panties and slid them off her legs._

_With her friend utterly exposed, Alessa dived right in. She started off slowly at first, kissing Heather’s pussy, nibbling on her labia and licking around her inner thighs. She knew what Heather liked. Her hands roamed beneath the blonde’s thighs, gliding over her ass cheeks, savoring the feel of her smooth curves under her fingertips. Soon Heather was bucking against her in unabashed desire. Alessa moved her arms under her hips, to prevent her bare skin from touching the floor. Holding the other’s body in her grasp, she proceeded to eat out Heather at her whim, licking eagerly at her clit and labia. Pleased with the result, Alessa took it one step further. She enclosed Heather’s sex with her mouth, lapping at the aroused folds, nibbling at them, and sucking at her clit in her version of a very intimate French kiss. Heather moaned in pleasure, her cries becoming louder and more urgent, until finally she was at that wonderful breaking point._

_“Oh God, I’m gonna come,” Heather said in a rush._

_Hearing those words from her beloved, Alessa continued feasting on her girlfriend’s mound, licking faster and deeper at her clit, causing Heather to cry out in ecstasy. She only had to do this for several moments, until at last the pseudo-blonde stiffened in her grasp. The brunette held her form as Heather broke out into pleasure spasms, riding the wave of her orgasm._

_Had she been able to see it, the blonde’s face would have been equally satisfying: Heather gasping in pleasure, her eyes rolling back in her head as the climax took over her body. Alessa pulled back just in time to see the first stream of cum erupt from Heather’s pussy. She watched, mesmerized, as Heather squirted her juices onto the tiles, catching some of Alessa’s shirt in the process. Enraptured in pleasure, she furiously rubbed her clit until all traces of the orgasm were exhausted._

_Once satisfied, Heather settled limply in Alessa’s grasp. Her hips were still over Alessa’s arms, which was mercifully preventing her from touching the ground with her rear. A good thing too, since she wouldn’t have been able to stand up in her condition. She barely noticed the hardness of the tiles as she laid her head back against the plaza floor. But Alessa wasn’t done yet. Reveling in her arousal, she buried her face between Heather’s legs, eagerly lapping up the remainder of her juices. She skirted her tongue over the now very sensitive folds, sending tiny shivers of semi-orgasmic pleasure though her body. Heather gently brushed the hair from Alessa’s forehead, signaling her to stop._

_Alessa sat back pleased with her handiwork, the taste of Heather’s spicy juices still on her lips. Heather rarely came with such intensity. Her legs were still in Alessa’s grasp. Alessa doubted she could move them. The environment they were in must have had an added effect, taking Heather’s arousal to brand new heights by reminder her that they were doing something naughty…and very, very out of the place in the mall before them._

_Eventually Heather did get up from her exhausted position, coming to stand on her knees. She casually embraced her friend as they shared another deep, sensual kiss. Heather smirked at the taste of her own juices on Alessa’s lips. Her hands roamed down her lover’s back, pausing to cup her ass, pulling Alessa’s hips closer against hers. Pausing for a moment, Alessa took her shirt and lifted it over her head. Heather licked her lips at the sight of Alessa’s bare breasts, looking creamy as ever. Smiling deviously, she gave the girl another kiss._

_It was Alessa’s turn now. The raven-haired beauty allowed Heather to gently guide her back against the floor. She put the jeans she had discarded a while ago underneath Alessa, to keep from feeling the hardness of the floor too much. Along with Alessa’s shirt, it made for a semi-comfortable throw cushion. Alessa laid her head against the makeshift pillow, trying not to shiver in the frigid shopping mall air. There was another reason she was shivering. She had never done this before – not in a public place like this. For some reason, she felt utterly exposed, despite there not being anyone but Heather in the vicinity. And yet, she had no intention of turning back. She was shivering in anticipation of what Heather had planned._

_Heather pulled Alessa’s sneakers off her feet, followed by her jeans. She was left in nothing but her panties and a pair of socks, a fact which Heather greatly appreciated. She smiled at the way the other girl was shaking. Alessa was so cute when she was nervous. Heather lowered herself over Alessa’s body and wrapped her in a heady kiss, cradling Alessa’s head in her hands. Pulling the brunette up with her, she strayed away from those full pink lips, holding Alessa’s face against her chest as she kissed the top of her head, then her forehead, working her way down to her cheeks, until finding herself back at her lips._

_She carefully lowered Alessa onto the ground once again. Her hands explored the length of her girlfriend’s body, traversing along her sides to her thighs, gliding over the smooth skin, before traveling back up to Alessa’s breasts. The nipples on the pliant flesh were erect, though from the cold or arousal, Heather knew not which. Nonetheless, just focusing on the hardened peaks sent a shiver of arousal through her body. Her clit hardened in response as she began to play with her lover’s chest._

_Alessa uttered a gasp as Heather massaged her breasts, kneading the pale mounds thoroughly in her hands. She loved it when Heather handled her breasts. They were so sensitive, and Heather’s hands felt so good, it was enough to send the shudders of pleasure straight to her crotch. She resisted the urge to rub herself, knowing Heather had something else planned besides giving her a massage. She couldn’t wait to have her friend’s tongue between her legs, licking thoroughly over her clit until she came all over the blonde’s mouth._

_So she leaned back and let Heather do her handiwork, molding and caressing and squeezing gently the pliable flesh of her breasts._

_And then things went utterly wrong._

_A horrid ripping sound indicated the tearing of something which sounded like cloth. Alessa was snapped out of her arousal and nearly fainted at what she saw. Hanging in Heather’s grasp was a strip of flesh torn right off her breast. The devious smile she wore hadn’t left Heather’s face even as she held her friend’s torn skin in her hand. Alessa’s eyes widened in horror, and her jaw fell open as she began to gasp for breath. Soon the pain caught up with her senses, sending currents of agony straight to her brain. And that wasn’t even the worst of this. Looking down, Alessa didn’t see the huge gash on her chest she was expecting. Instead the wound was blackened to a gruesome burn, teeming with blood and other bodily fluids._

_Alessa cried out in the utmost revulsion. She had the urge to vomit as she stared at the hideous wound, though she tried to choke down the bile rising in her throat. But Heather wasn’t done. With a frightening look, she reached down for Alessa’s chest. Grabbing a hold of her breasts, she tore another strip of flesh from the right as easily as if she were ripping a sheet of paper. Again, horrible, grotesquely burned flesh was revealed. The agony overtook Alessa. Her chest felt like it was burning; she was powerless to stop Heather’s unexpected and unexplained assault on her body. And her chest was not the only target. Digging her nails deep into Alessa’s skin, Heather proceeded to rip the flesh off her arms, little by little. Alessa screamed in agony and terror. She was going into shock, feeling numb and pain stricken at the same time. Deep at the back of her consciousness, she realized what was happening. She was being dismantled. Her body was being stripped away to reveal all the rotting of the soul underneath – the result of thirteen years of accumulated hatred against the Order._

_Alessa was not the only one being transformed. The corruption was seeping into Heather, flowing up from her arms in revolting spidery veins. The substance engulfed her body, converting her flesh into blackened, diseased tissue until her entire form was a charred imitation of how Alessa once was._

_Exactly as Alessa was now._

_Alessa held her arms protectively close to her body. Or rather, what was left of it. Her skin was completely peeled away, leaving her a fire-wrecked mass of flesh in its place. The smell of her own burnt flesh penetrated her nostrils, tempting the bile to rise to her throat. She felt the blood and other body fluids pooling under her torso, forming a disgusting patch of sickness from the moist, grimy wounds on her body. Alessa looked at her supposed friend and felt a chill go through her body, as though she weren’t frightened enough._

_The Heather she knew was gone. Heather’s eyes were red, staring at her with a vacant look that sent shivers down her spine. Those eyes weren’t human. Those were the eyes of a demon; something foul and grotesque, and utterly inhuman._

_The doppelganger dug her fingers into Alessa’s flesh with sinister intent._

_“No, please…” Alessa begged, though she knew she would receive no mercy._

_She was right when a moment later, the unthinkable happened. Heather plunged her hand deep into Alessa’s abdomen. Alessa spasmed in the throes of anguish as her body went into the utmost shock possible. Uncaring of her torment, Heather’s fist carved a path through her internal organs, dismantling the flesh with her fingers. The coppery taste rose in the back of her throat as blood pooled in her mouth. Her eyes rolled up into the back of her head; the pain was indescribable. She knew she was dying. The doppelganger continued her grisly deed, tearing through flesh and fluid, until Alessa found herself fading into black. The last thing she saw before the darkness claimed her was a piece of her heart in Heather’s blood drenched hand. Soon a flash of light illuminated the area, tearing Alessa away from her indescribably horrid nightmare._

 

~

 

With a terrified scream, Alessa woke up from the horrifying nightmare. She looked around wildly searching for her doppelganger, before realizing she was no longer in that surreal place. Neither was she in the battleground she had been in before. The stores were back to their original conditions, unmarred by the corruption of the Otherworld. The monster she had killed was nowhere to be seen. The rocks beneath her feet had disappeared, and the tunnels through which the monster burrowed were long gone from the surroundings.

She was back in the normal world. 

Alessa breathed an enormous sigh of relief. Her heart was pounding in her ears. She was breathing hard, feeling she had just run a mile without stopping. Unconsciously she looked down at her body, examining herself to make sure her body parts were all still intact. Thankfully the skin on her arms was still there, and there was no sign of any injury to her body. It was all a dream.

She didn’t stand up right away. Instead she sat there trying to catch her breath. God, it seemed so real. Too real for comfort. She leaned against a fountain, the same one from her dream. Strange, how accurate a replication this was of that image. In fact, the stores themselves were a reenactment of those in that amazingly vivid dream. Never mind that was familiar with the layout of this shopping mall. It wasn’t possibly a coincidence that the same location in that nightmare was the one she found herself in now. 

It didn’t take her long to realize the truth. The way they behaved in that scenario, completely oblivious to anything else. How easy it was to go along with everything, in the most uncomfortable of places; to believe that this was actually occurring. The way she could “read” Heather’s thoughts, despite being a completely different person. Then there was the unusual mood throughout the experience. The way she felt distanced from the whole thing. How easy it was to think of that girl as Alessa, not herself, while at the same time being Alessa. This was no ordinary dream. Only the Red god could have created such a convincing illusion to wreck her mind with. 

Alessa pondered Heather’s presence in her dream. The two had met a little under a year ago. The circumstances of their meeting were outstandingly complex, and she had no desire to go into them at this time. Suffice to say, Heather was the person Alessa would have been had she not gotten caught up in the Order’s manipulations. They quickly became friends and eventually, turned into more. Alessa didn’t regret becoming lovers with her. She only regretted things had ended so badly. Heather’s father wasn’t able to accept their relationship becoming intimate. He was jealous of the attention Heather lavished on Alessa, and he wasn’t able to accept Alessa’s father using any means necessary to protect her – methods that often bordered on the ruthless. Worst of all, he cloaked it behind the callousness of using Alessa’s gender as an excuse.

Heather was caught between her girlfriend and her father, never a good combination. And so they parted ways. Heather refused to abandon her father for true love, even if it meant letting him run her life for the rest of her life. She apologized later, begging Alessa to forgive her. Alessa politely refused. She didn’t hate Heather, nor did she wish her any ill will. Alessa treasured the time she spent with her. She just didn’t want to be with someone who didn’t know what they wanted. 

Still, those memories were among the happiest of her life. The feeling of connecting with someone who truly understood what she was feeling, how she was thinking, at all times, was one that she always cherished. 

She wondered what the purpose of having Heather in her nightmare was. Was it to tease her with a glimpse of happiness in order to motivate her to keep going? Or was it to show how even the most pure of things could be corrupted by the Otherworld? 

Alessa got to her feet. How long had she been out? In her mind it seemed like only a few minutes, but physically, it felt more like a few hours. Her watch was no help. The minute hand was stuck on a quarter to seven. 

Her jaunt through the edges of space and time had taken longer than expected, not astonishing considering she was fighting for her life most of the time. Even now she wondered about the reason behind this madness. What was the point? Maybe there was no purpose to this. Perhaps the Red god was just having some fun manipulating her like a pawn. The gods were just as fucked up as any human being. Maybe this was the Red One’s way of getting his jollies, and now that she had run his little maze, he would finally leave her alone. She hoped so. She wasn’t in the mood for any more traumas. 

Not surprisingly, the shops were all closed. Even if the trip through that horrible realm was over, it was probably nine or ten o’clock by now. Mall closing time was at seven thirty. 

_Damn. Mom’s got to be worried by now_ , Alessa thought. _I hope she’s okay._

Oddly enough, the Happy Burger was still open. There wasn’t much inside, though. Any traces of that alternate dimension were gone. The tables were neatly arranged with the usual condiments, table mats and napkins. Curiously, a health drink was on one of the countertops. Alessa wondered if it was left over from her trip down the rabbit hole. A warning bell went off in her head. Was this a sign that things still weren’t over with the nightmare world? No, it couldn’t be. She’d done what he wanted, hadn’t she? She’d killed a bunch of monsters, solved his accursed riddles and given in to her anger, proving that she was still as hate-filled as any other person in the world, given the right circumstances. 

Was that was this was all about? Giving her a chance to work out her anger, _judging_ her for it like some holier-than-thou being? If so, then it was a waste of time on his part. She hated the Order. She would always hate the Order, and nothing a god could do would change that. If it was psychological torture the deity was after, then he certainly accomplished that. The scares from that place were more than enough to last her a lifetime. She barely got out of there with her skin intact. What more did he want from her?

The way to the main foyer was unlocked, much to Alessa’s relief. She smiled when she saw the main exit. _Yes, I’m free!_ She thought, feeling a little giddy. Who wouldn’t be after going through a Twilight Zone version of their favorite place?

She was on her way out when an all-too-familiar voice halted her in her tracks. 

“Alessa!” Douglas Cartland called out across the plaza. 

Great. Just the last person Alessa wanted to see right now. She kept walking. Maybe if she ignored him, the bastard would get a clue and leave her alone. 

No such luck, however. 

“What do you want?” 

On the outside, Douglas ignored the venom lacing her tone. Inwardly he cringed. Rarely did he hear such venom from a pretty young girl like this. 

“Alessa, what the hell just happened? All those weird places. And that monster. What the hell was that?” 

Alessa gave him a baleful glance. “Oh please. Like you don’t know already,” she scoffed. 

“What are you talking about? What did I do?”

“You. You’re in on this with that witch, aren’t you?” Alessa spat. 

“A witch? What witch? What are you talking about?” Douglas asked, bewildered. 

“A white haired woman! Wearing a long dress. Looks like one of those religious fanatics you hear about on the news,” Alessa snapped. “Don’t play dumb! You know exactly what I’m talking about.” 

“White haired woman…are you talking about Claudia?” 

Alessa froze at the confirmation that it was indeed Claudia who was behind this. She’d suspected her childhood friend might be the woman she encountered in that hallway, but to hear it bluntly from someone took things to a frightening level of realism. It pained Alessa to know her friend had turned into one of those fanatics she hated so much. No doubt Claudia had made some type of agreement with the Red god in exchange for his services. Never mind that the god was using her for its own ends, Claudia was likely convinced that it was her plans that were going ahead on schedule. Whatever those were, she knew they couldn’t be good. 

_Claudia, what happened to you?_

She wondered what the woman had planned. It couldn’t possibly be anything to do with “God”, could it? Only a few people ever knew of Dahlia’s plan. Those were all dead, save for Alessa herself. There was no way Claudia should be able to know the where, how and why’s of that ordeal. While she did mention “Paradise”, Alessa refused to accept that it was anything more than the Order’s beliefs shining through. The alternative was unacceptable. 

If Claudia wanted to use her to ‘resurrect’ “God”, then she was sorely mistaken. There was nothing of that monster left in her body, save for the hate it inspired in her. If Claudia thought she was going to bring it back in any shape or fashion, she was in for a rude awakening. 

“Claudia?”

“Yeah, Claudia. Claudia Wolf. You know her or something?” 

Alessa sighed. “I did, once.”

“So what happened?”

“…It’s not important,” Alessa answered. 

“So what’s going on?” Douglas stressed again, this time sounding a bit annoyed with her…and still very much confused.

Alessa stared at the old detective, at his completely befuddled expression…”You don’t know,” she breathed, disbelief clearly evident. “You really don’t know what I’m talking about, do you?”

“No, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” Douglas shook his head. 

“Why did you follow me then?”

“Claudia hired me to find you,” Douglas said. “That’s it. I don’t have a clue about anything else.”

Alessa couldn’t sense any duplicity in the statement. Neither did he give off the sense that she usually got when someone was lying. Unless he was very good at mental shielding, Douglas was telling the truth. 

The young woman sighed. So much for that lead. 

“Wait. Where are you going?” Douglas asked when she started walking away. 

Alessa didn’t respond. Hopefully once she got away from this place, and this hired lackey intent on stalking her, things would go back to normal. Not very likely, but a person could hope, couldn’t they? 

Unfortunately, there was another problem to deal with. 

“Shit! It’s locked.” The exit doors didn’t budge, no matter how hard she pushed.

“I know. Why else you think I was still hanging around here?” Douglas told her. 

“Damn it,” Alessa swore, smashing her fist against the glass. That meant there was no way to reach her car in the parking lot. How was she supposed to get home now?

The stairs adjacent to where she’d come from caught her eye. Oh well. Public transportation wasn’t something she was used to utilizing, but it would have to do. She dug around in her pocket, making sure she still had some money on her. Thankfully she did. One less thing to worry about, at least. 

With no other choice, Alessa decided that braving the subway was an acceptable risk. It was better than staying here; Douglas couldn’t interrogate her if she got out of here fast enough. Not to mention, she’d also feel better getting away from him. She still wasn’t convinced he wasn’t a threat. Clueless though he may be, there was no telling what kind of person he was, or how he reacted under pressure. His track record certainly didn’t bode well. Anyone who would take a job from those nutcases at the Order had to be a little shady. Alessa descended the stairs into the subway, keeping an eye out for any sign of approach from her ‘companion’. 

“Where are you going?” Douglas asked. 

“I’m taking the subway home,” Alessa responded. 

“Wait, what about Claudia? Won’t you tell me what’s going on?” Douglas shouted across the lobby. 

“Figure it out yourself,” Alessa called back. 

She disappeared into the stairway below.


	9. Eerie Desolation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Disclaimer: Silent Hill is owned by Konami.**

**Chapter 7: Eerie Desolation**

**Hazel Street Station - Part 1**

 

Surrounded by white tiles, posters of myriad films and products, and a distinct lack of monsters, Alessa thought she might have finally escaped that disturbing nightmare from before. The subway station was like any other she had seen. A bit cleaner, perhaps. There was not a speck of any litter around. There were no hints of anything supernatural. Yet. All in all, it seemed like she had finally returned to the real world for good.

Except for one thing.

The subway station was eerily quiet. There was not a hint of sound anywhere, save for her own steps. Alessa was more unsettled than she cared to admit. Her footsteps echoed loudly in the desolate environment, serving as a warning to anything nearby that she was coming. Even if it was late, shouldn’t there be people around? At the very least, there should be people disembarking from the incoming and outgoing trains.

After several minutes of wandering around, Alessa still hadn’t seen anybody. She noted the station seemed larger without people. It would be easy to get lost without a map. Fortunately Alessa was somewhat familiar with the layout. She had been here before a couple times. Not enough to know every nuance of the station, but enough that she had a vague impression of where to go.

She came to the central lobby of the station. Again, there was nobody in sight. The nearby assistance booth was vacant, and it looked like no one had been there in quite a while. Strange. 

There was nobody around, so she simply went over the turnstile. One benefit to there not being anyone here, at least – she didn’t have to pay the train fare. As she looked around, Alessa could not help but wonder. Where was everybody? Her mind refused to accept the possibility that she was still in the Otherworld. That was over and done with. She only the trains were still running. 

There were numerous token machines nearby, but she had no use for them. Alessa spied a newspaper article on top of a token machine and checked it out. 

_Fatal Accident at Hazel Street_

_At about 11 PM on the 4th, a man_  
 _waiting on the platform at the Hazel_  
 _Street station fell onto the tracks_  
 _and was decapitated by the arriving_  
 _St. Renata College-bound train._  
 _The victim died instantly._

_While the police have not yet determined_  
 _whether the death was an accident or_  
 _suicide, witnesses report that the victim_  
 _did not look inebriated and seemed to_  
 _jump off the platform deliberately._

_The victim’s identity is still_  
 _unknown. He was approximately_  
 _40 years old, 5 feet 10 inches tall,_  
 _and wearing a black jacket._

_Nice_ , Alessa thought with some sarcasm. _I’m in the middle of a crime scene. Just great!_

So she wasn’t alone. Someone must have put the article there. But who? There wasn’t anyone around that she could tell. No signs of disturbance by anybody. Unless the article just appeared out of thin air? But that would lead her toward the conclusion she really wanted to avoid. 

Regardless of the circumstances, she supposed the content was the most important thing. She made a mental note to avoid that platform. It wasn’t one she needed to take the train on, but all the same, she didn’t want to disturb what was probably a very off-limits area. 

She picked up a map from the side of the sales booth. “Hmm,” Alessa examined the map, nothing there were five levels to the station. Strange. This wasn’t a huge map like the ones on the wall somewhere. This was a tiny map more befitting a shopping mall than a subway station. Why would someone leave it tacked to the side of a wall, when chances were that no one would need it anyway? She didn’t recall anyone ever handing these out before, though her experience was limited. This is getting weird, Alessa thought, itching to pull out her gun. She wouldn’t draw it yet. There was no trace of anything dangerous. But she was on her guard.

There was nowhere to go but down. Left, right or middle? Those were the choices for the stairways. She decided on the middle. At least, she was going towards the center one. Suddenly, she got the feeling something wasn’t right. Her mouth fell several inches as she saw what the source of that feeling was.

An unusual form made its way up the stairs, causing Alessa to pause. She thought it might have been a person at first, until she saw was no ordinary being. It wasn’t even human. The rustling sound it produced was something no human being would make, unless they were dragging themselves on the ground.

The formless mass was pale olive in color, writhing in hypnotic movements as it shambled up the stairs. Alessa was at a loss until she realized it was a body bag. The bag was dripping blood onto the floor, and she thought she saw a limb or two protruding from the fabric, guiding the creature or creatures inside up the stairs. Unearthly sounds emanated from the bag, telling of indescribable struggle and aguish. To Alessa’s horror, she almost thought she could detect a hint of a human voice underneath the groaning. It almost sounded like there was a woman in that bag, wracked with the torment of a person bleeding out their life onto the ground.

Alessa reached for her gun, only to find herself paralyzed. No matter how hard she tried, her body simply would not reach. And then, as soon as it appeared, the specter was gone. Alessa blinked her eyes rapidly. She looked around wildly for the creature, in case it decided to sneak up on her, but the body bag was absent from the station. It was gone. 

What the hell just happened? She thought to herself. It was impossible to explain. One minute the thing was shambling up the steps, she closed her eyes, the next thing she knew, it was gone. Was she hallucinating the whole thing?

There was not a drop of blood on the floor. Neither was there that coppery smell usually associated with blood. No scent of a corpse either. Unsettled, Alessa thought it better to just go down into the second level. 

The fact she went down another stairway was just a precaution.

 

~

 

It was definitely more difficult to navigate the second level. She was surprised by how hard it was to find her way in an empty subway station, until she remembered she had her map. Somehow it was easier to find things when she saw where people were going. Not to mention, the constant feeling that she might get jumped at any moment. As if worrying about regular dirt bags weren’t enough, now she had to worry about things that weren’t human.

It took her a while to find the right entrance. She stuck to the corridor until she came to a door at the end, next to a dull metal barrier.

There was something about this station that was always a little creepy to her. Most of the stations she’d seen were open in design. Not so here. These barriers were scattered throughout the areas in unlikely places, some of them inaccessible to the public. Alessa wondered why. What were they hiding? She supposed they could be workers’ areas, yet somehow she didn’t think so. After all, the workers’ areas were clearly labeled in the sections. It was almost like they wanted people to be trapped in case of an emergency. 

Some things were better left unsaid, she supposed.

She found herself in the large 2nd level lobby. There was a giant map on one of the support pillars, dealing with the stops each subway route made. Just as she expected, the second level was the information center of the subway station. It was a nice touch, but Alessa didn’t need to consult a map for this part. She knew her way home. 

In order to get back home, she had to take the Bergen St. train on Platform 3, until she neared the end of the route. Her dad had made sure she knew how to ride the subway, in case she found herself without access to her car. A good thing too, as she was sure her car was probably stolen by now. Stolen, or towed away. There was no way a car would stay that long past parking hours without it getting stolen or towed. 

There was an odd noise emanating from somewhere. It sounded far away, like it was muted in some fashion. As she listened closely in the lobby, the noise suddenly picked up volume. It sounded so unfamiliar in the current environment that for a moment, Alessa didn’t even recognize it. Then she realized what it was: a telephone ringing.

Alessa stared back at a row of pay phones. There was a set of them that she’d bypassed completely when she came in. Much to her disbelief, the central telephone was ringing with a persistent tone. Alessa was sure this had to be a one-of-a-kind occurrence. How often did a pay phone ring in the real world?

Another thought occurred to her. Was it for her?

She didn’t want to answer it at first. The ringing persisted, becoming more annoying with every subsequent one. By the time it hit the eighth ring, Alessa decided to take it.

“Hello?”

The moment she answered, there was the sound of someone hanging up followed by the dial tone. Alessa pulled back in befuddlement. 

What the…? Who would call a pay phone and then intentionally hang up? This didn’t make any sense. 

She was about to leave when yet another unexpected thing happened. The telephone rang again.

Alessa stared at it. Common sense dictated that she not take it. It was a cliché in almost every horror movie. As soon as she answered it, some psycho on the other end would burst out with insane laughter. 

But common sense did not account for Alessa’s curiosity. Against her better judgment, she did the unthinkable. She decided to answer it. 

“Hello?” she answered. 

There was an instance of silence, just before a blast of sound poured over the telephone. Alessa drew back from the deafening rattle, waiting for the shock to pass. When the noise died down, Alessa put the payphone closer to her ear. The prattle sounded like a collection of moans and gurgles bereft with pain – a cacophony of suffering ongoing in its misery. 

Alessa dropped the phone. What the…? Was this someone’s idea of a sick joke? It seemed unlikely. What kind of people could produce those sounds?

Suddenly the atmosphere changed into an almost sinister presence. The air went down several degrees in temperature, becoming frigid in its bite. It was like a dark presence had awoken in the subway, overtaking the environment with its malice. Alessa was horrified at the change; how the station had gone from a nice, quiet location into somewhere where she could literally feel the evil permeating the place. _Oh shit. What did I do?_ She asked herself, wishing now more than ever that she hadn’t picked up that stupid phone. 

Alessa shuddered from the cold, and from the dread that permeated itself into her bones. She could not identify where that dread came from. She only knew that whatever it was, the telephone call had awakened some incredibly potent and unidentifiable danger in the station.

Where was that danger going to come from? The possibilities were limitless. The subway station was a huge place. A monster could come from any corner to attack her. She stumbled away in a daze, feeling overcome by the sudden change in the environment. This place was radiating evil so much it was almost nauseating. 

She looked back and saw the phone was bleeding, dripping sticky streams of blood onto the ground. Alessa reeled at the grotesque sight. Her heart was pounding thunderously in her chest. The world was spinning around her. She felt like the walls were closing in on her, and she would be crushed from the tension of the palpable menace. Alessa whimpered as she dropped to her knees, holding her head in her hands, her body trembling from the bone chilling coldness that she couldn’t seem to resist. She was drowning in her fright, unable to breathe, certain the encroaching darkness would garrote the life out of her. 

And then it disappeared. 

Alessa looked up and glanced around. No darkness, no monsters; the sense of menace she had felt was gone. The phone was hanging by the cord, but it was no longer bleeding. The oppressing aura she had crumbled under had disappeared. It was all an illusion. A hallucination.

Alessa shakily stood up. God, that had taken a lot out of her. She took a moment to recover, still a little unsteady on her feet. She was scared, more scared than she’d been in a long time. She had half an urge to just run back to where she came from and try to break through the doors in the mall. But there was nowhere to go. Who knew if that entryway was accessible anymore? And there was the other reason she came down here. She didn’t want to run into Douglas again. She was surprised he hadn’t followed her down here. She went ahead, but not before sighing at the terror this place was putting her through once more. 

There was nowhere to go but down. It didn’t take long for her to find the area she needed to go to. Unfortunately there was a problem.

“Damn,” Alessa swore.

The gates were locked. Already in a fairly rusted state, there were large rusted chains binding them closed, barring the Bergen Street platform from entry. A large imposing padlock secured the two gates. It was obvious someone did not want her to enter the Bergen Street platform, or anyone for that matter. She stared at the padlock in disbelief. What was she supposed to do now?

The answer came instantly to her. Ordinarily she might have looked for the key, had she any idea where it was. But Alessa didn’t have time for that. On closer glance, she realized the setup wasn’t as intimidating as she thought. The chains looked rusty and weak. So did the padlock. Should be easy enough. Grabbing the pipe she carried with both hands, she lifted it over her head and brought the pipe down hard on the padlock. She smashed the lock again and again. The padlock rattled but showed little sign of giving way. She began to wonder if there was some way she could shoot the lock from a distance while hiding beside the nearby stairway. Finally the lock gave way, falling to the ground with a metallic thud. 

Alessa smirked to herself in triumph. She didn’t need a key. Necessity was the mother of improvisation.

The stairway was somewhat dim. Suddenly a howl emanated from below. Alessa froze in her tracks. Were there dogs down there? There were sounds of growing and rumbling coming from below. Alessa shuddered at the thought of going down there. What if it was dark? What if the dogs were able to get to her before she was able to draw her gun? On the other hand, she needed to get to the platform. There was no choice to be made, though. She had to go down there. Gripping her pipe tightly, she descended the stairway and found…nothing. No dogs, no darkness; just another poorly lit hallway leading to yet another set of stairs. 

Alessa breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps that was just a trick of this place. At any rate, it was almost over. Once she got on platform 3 and caught the train, she could go home and forget this ever happened to her.

The stairway was dark, but she wasn’t worried anymore. Gripping her rust laden pipe, she descended into the darkness. 

It was barely three seconds before the nightmare struck. Alessa was just taking her first steps on platform 3 when a fearsome mass came barreling out of nowhere. She dropped to the ground as the creature sailed by, barely avoiding being bitten. The creature whirled its gaze on her, ready to pounce once again. Alessa held the pipe like a bat. When the dog was a mere few feet away, she swung the pipe hard, connecting with a sickening crack. The dog crashed to the ground, writhing in agony. Another howl joined the cacophony, followed by a growl as another dog tried to take a chunk out of her. Alessa realized there were more dogs down here than she expected, and she could not win this fight. She fled back up the stairs. The dog went after her. Alessa ducked just in time to see a bandaged form fly over her head and land nimbly on the ground.

If there was one thing to be grateful for about these zombie dogs, it was their predictability. They always did a loop before attacking again. And just when the dog turned to charge again, it found itself the recipient of three shots in the head that ended its life permanently. 

Alessa leaned back against the wall, breathing a big sigh of relief. That was close, too close for comfort. She was not going down there again. Maybe there was another way to get to platform 3. There were plenty of stairways, after all. And this was no ordinary world.

Sighing, she dusted herself off and collected her wits. She was definitely on guard now.

 

~

 

She was in the stairwell to platform 4. It seemed like the most reasonable place to start. Maybe that was what the article in the newspaper was really about. It was trying to tell her that that was where she needed to go.

It gave her the chills a little, setting foot where someone had died. But it was either that or the dogs back in platform 3. She would stick with the crime scene. At least it was a less dangerous alternative.

All she had to do was find a way into platform 3 from where she could see down the length of the platform, rather than from beside it. If she could do that, her chances would be much better of defending herself. Or maybe a place where she could shoot at the dogs from across the platform. That option would work just as well.

Alessa saw something on the ground of the stairway. Kneeling down to pick it up, she realized it was a magazine article.

_The souls of those who died_  
 _suddenly by suicide or accident_  
 _don’t realize they’re dead._  
 _Sometimes they stay put and_  
 _haunt that particular place._

_These spirits have lost their human_  
 _senses and memories and can only_  
 _keep replaying the pain and sadness_  
 _of the moment they died._

_The pain can get so bad that they_  
 _turn to humans for salvation -- or_  
 _they begrudge humans their lives._  
 _At such times they can possess_  
 _humans._

_Places known as “famous suicide_  
 _spots” or “high-accident areas”_  
 _are often to blame._

_You should be careful when_  
 _approaching such locations,_  
 _especially on the day or at the_  
 _time the death occurred._  
 _That is, if you don't want it_  
 _to happen to you, too._

Alessa felt a chill go after her. Suicide spots – she had heard of them before. Places where a suicide had taken place and the ghosts of the individuals could not move on from the experience, exactly as the magazine said. The spirits of the dead lingered after their deaths, prompting human visitors to follow the same fate. If one was not careful, the result was a never ending string of death and misery.

And now she questioned the certainty of going down there. What if…what if the presence of that victim was still there? What if it prompted her to do something she would never otherwise do, something she would not escape from?

But there were the dogs at the opposite stairs, waiting for her…

Fine, she decided. She would go down there to check things out. But if she felt anything amiss, she would get out of there as if the whole damn place was on fire.

There was nothing unusual about the track, she noted, as she surveyed the surroundings, standing safely away from the track. No police tape, no indications of a crime scene. There wasn’t a way to get across, and the second part of the platform was sealed off that she could tell. Out of the blue, the hairs on the back of her beck stood up. The atmosphere seemed to chill several degrees in temperature. It was cold all around her. And there was something else too, an utter feeling of dread that told her it would be a very bad idea to remain here. 

Alessa didn’t need anything else. She quickly scurried back up the steps. Once she was safely away, Alessa let out the breath she’d been holding.

Was that…was that the spirit of the victim? She didn’t know, but she was sure of one thing. She wasn’t waiting around to find out. 

She would just have to find another way into platform 3. Too bad. From the angle that platform was at, it would be perfect for shooting across at the dogs on 3.

She pulled out her map of the station. There were five sections to the station. She’d already covered two of them. One of them was just a hallway and a series of steps. That left only platforms 1 and 2 and their basements, if she could call them that. 

 

~

 

The sounds of feet in motion set Alessa on edge. She searched frantically for the source of the noise. Out of the darkness, a monstrous form emerged to quickly charge her at full speed. It was human sized at least, possibly bigger than her by several inches. Alessa quickly shot one round after the other into the monster, but the creature kept coming through the hail of bullets. Finally, a shot to the head was enough to bring it down.

Alessa took a closer look at the monstrosity. Christ, what was this? She wondered in horror. It looked like it was infected by something. Grotesque tumors were scattered over its body, covering the brown neck and torso with a horrid mass of pustules. The skin beneath the chest wasn’t much better. The legs and stomach were visibly inhuman, and there were no distinguishing features of male or female gender.

And its face – there was barely one to begin with. The skin was stretched so taut, she could barely tell where the skull ended and the neck began. 

She quickly scanned around for any more of them, but there were no more to be found. Or so she thought.

Out of the shadows emerged a fearsome canine monster ready to pounce on its latest victim. Soon another dog came to gnaw at her, this one with the same voraciousness as its companion. She didn’t bother to fight them. Alessa swiftly maneuvered between them, dodging and weaving her way through the monsters to avoid their menacing grasps. She ducked into a nearby stairwell. 

 

~

 

Alessa stared at the man lying on the ground from underneath the newspaper. It was obvious was he wasn’t sleeping. She wished she could do something for him, but it was obvious he was beyond help at this point.

She was in platform 1’s lower level, in the basement of the subway station. Or what she assumed was the basement. The place was filled with trash, blocking the passageway ahead. There was little to note of interest. She found two health drinks and a box of handgun rounds, but that was about it. There was nothing but garbage and the victim of circumstances she preferred not to think about.

She turned to walk away. Suddenly a most unusual thing occurred. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw something move. Alessa stopped short in her tracks. Was that a tail coming out from under the newspaper? It almost seemed ridiculous. And yet, she was sure she hadn’t imagined the pointy dark object slithering down on the ground. Was she going crazy? It reminded her of that movie she’d seen, except she wasn’t exiting from the train, she was trying to a find a way to take it.

She quickly scurried away. She didn’t know if that was her imagination and suddenly, she didn’t want to know. 

The ‘dead’ homeless guy could help himself…


	10. Deeper into the Darkness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Disclaimer: Silent Hill is owned by Konami.**
> 
>  
> 
> **AN: I'm looking for a beta reader for this story. Does anyone want to volunteer?**
> 
>  
> 
> **AN2: I may relax the review standards for this story, it depends on the situation. I've heard the anonymous review system is better for this site, and there do seem to be very little if any flames. I may try it out.**

**Chapter 8: Deeper into the Darkness**

**Hazel Street Station - Part 2**

 

Over an hour in this damn place, and she was still stuck in the subway station.

Alessa cursed the obstacles this place put in her path. All she wanted to do was to get home, and this place kept finding ways to keep her from being anywhere near that goal.

She found an item in another basement of the subway, a nutcracker rusted brown from disuse. She resisted the urge to make any jokes, wondering what use she might have for such an item. Maybe she could use it on Douglas.

On second thought, maybe she wasn't as out of humor as she thought, smiling wickedly to herself. 

In the stairway to the second level, she spotted a note attached to the wall. Picking it up, she felt confusion and revulsion as she read:

_Tisk, tisk; I have a very enticing birthday present for you. Come to the platform number 4 to get it. I'm sure you'll enjoy using it on others. Or perhaps, you can use it on yourself instead._

Alessa was intrigued by the note. Her eyes lit up in anticipation. It looked like she was heading to platform 4.

She swore when she realized there might be more of those monstrous things there. But if there was something to be found, then perhaps it was worth bypassing those monsters for.

Strangely, there were no dogs around. And there was a train stopped right in the middle of the track. Alessa opened the door to the passenger car and was stunned by what she saw. There was a beautifully wrapped gift box with a bow on top. Opening the box, her eyes lit up when she saw what the gift was. It was a shotgun! Alessa picked up the hefty weapon and paused with an admiring glance. It even had 12 shells beside it and was fully loaded. Now she was ready to get past those dogs on platform 3, and anything else that might threaten her.

There was an unusual atmosphere waiting for her when she emerged. Alessa shuddered in instinctive reaction. Something wasn't right. Her radio was buzzing like crazy. And then she saw it.

She thought it was a garbage bag at first, until she realized that it had form. It looked like would get a chance to test her new shotgun a lot sooner than she anticipated.

The closer she got to it, the more disgusting it became. Oh my god, she thought to herself. It looked like a mass of tumors in human shape – or one giant tumor in the form of a human. The smell was horrible. It smelled like a piece of meat that had been left rotting out in the sun, or something. Was it dead? The radio didn't indicate it, but the thing wasn't moving. Looking closer, she saw that it was twitching. Was it still alive? She wondered in amazement.

And then the creature stood up, nearly startling Alessa out of her wits. She quickly steadied the shotgun. Without hesitation, she fired at th upper part of the mass in front of her. The explosion was deafening, and it almost sent Alessa reeling. The monster was far more affected, falling to the ground in a wounded mass of flesh and fluids. Before it could recover, Alessa smashed her pipe down on its head. The monster gave one final shudder and fell still, after an unearthly death growl. It was dead.

To her surprise, it literally deflated after its demise. 

Like...

Like a tumor drained of its liquid, Alessa realized. 

Alessa felt the relief pour off her in waves. That almost gave her a heart attack. The pipe in one hand, the shotgun in the other, she was almost using them to support her from collapsing under her shaky legs. She looked at the shotgun, an admiration for how powerful it was growing inside her. It was a powerful weapon, if it could bring a monster to its knees with one shot.

She was carrying the shotgun and the pipe now. It occurred to her that she was going to have to leave one of them. And it sure wasn't going to be the shotgun. She wasn't Ash from the Evil Dead series. She couldn't fight with the pipe in one hand and the shotgun in the other. But she wasn't comfortable doing so until she got out of the subway station. Only at that point would she relinquish the weaker of her weapons. 

She traversed back to the place where all this had started: platform 3. The dogs were waiting for her. But this time, Alessa was ready for them. There was a thunderous sound as the first shotgun blast struck the dog, destroying part of its skull. The creature stood up from the blast, dripping blood and skull matter from the wound, only to have another shot put it down for good. Another dog came at her, and this one suffered the same fate as the other, getting blown to hell by the massive blast of the shotgun. Alessa had to admit, it felt satisfying to see that monster go down. She didn't even have to stomp on it. She did so anyway, feeling it necessary to release some of her frustrations. 

Alessa took a look around. The train should be arriving soon. She supposed she would just have to wait for it. The dog problem was solved for now. There were no more canines lingering in the vicinity of the platform. 

Minutes passed, and the train did not come to the station. Alessa began to get concerned. Was the train out of order too in this place? It should have arrived by now. She wondered: what was she going to do if the train did not arrive to take her home? She would have to go back to the mall and find some way to break through the door, so that she could got to her car (if it was still there). Or if that detective was hanging around, perhaps she would steal his instead.

Alessa suddenly felt like there was something she was supposed to be noticing. There was a door on the inner wall of the track, and there was a light above the door. Alessa immediately stepped back. _Oh no_ , she thought snidely. This was the oldest trick in the book. As soon as she set foot on the track, the train was going to come barreling down the railroad track and mow her away.

She decided to wait. Something urged Alessa to check it out, but she resisted. How was she going to get down there? The obvious danger was present. How could she be sure the power was turned off? Never mind the implications of that, she wasn't going to go down there if there was any risk of being electrocuted. 

She stretched as much as possible from the platform edge, but she couldn't reach the door. She would have to go down onto the tracks in order to open it. The thought of going down there was terrifying in its consequences. But then she realized that unless she checked out that door, the train would possibly never arrive. It was a neat as trap as any she had seen. She pulled out a useless item and tossed it onto the tracks. The item did nothing when it connected with the rails. No sparks, no jumping; that was a good sign.

She jumped down onto the track, being careful to avoid the rails. She kept close to the platform, just in case she needed to make a hasty retreat. The door was locked. The doorknob rattled repeatedly, but the handle simply would nor turn. _What the...?_ She thought to herself. Then what was the point of all this? Suddenly she heard a sound that nearly stopped her heart cold. It was the sound of an oncoming horn, and it was very, very nearby. Now she knew what the point of this was, and it left her scrambling to get herself to safety. 

_Oh fuck no._

She scrambled to get up to the platform. Feverishly working her arms and legs, Alessa climbed up quickly, driven by the sheer terror that had taken hold of her at that moment. As a precaution, she threw herself with forward momentum and landed several feet away. Moments later, the train came barreling past her on the track where she had been only moments before. Several cars bypassed her in the process before finally grinding down to a halt.

Alessa looked at the train with a combined sense of horror and disbelief. She had almost gotten killed. If she had not stayed close to the platform, or heard the horn when she did, she would have been mowed down by the oncoming onslaught of the subway.

Once again, she felt a wave of anger at whoever was doing this. God, hadn't she suffered enough?! What the hell was the point of all this? Was it just to torment her? Or were they really out to kill them for what she did to them those six years ago? She demanded an answer. Unfortunately, no answer was forthcoming. Alessa realized this was just another thing she would have to deal with in a long list of unpleasant experiences today.

The way out was blocked. She would have to go upstairs through the second floor in order to come down on the other side. And yet, she felt compelled to return to the first floor before that. She didn't know why she felt that way, yet she just did. But she had learned to trust such feelings, and she wasn't going to ignore this one. Maybe she had missed something. Or maybe there was something that she really needed to see.

True enough, someone had blocked the passageway above. Which meant she really had to go through the first floor in order to come out on the other side. Debris was piled up in the middle of the hallway, forming a large concrete wall. It was like the ceiling had crumbled on itself. How could this have happened without her knowing about it?

It was a long climb to the first floor, and one that Alessa undertook with caution. She was careful to maintain her guard, keeping her eyes and ears open for anything that might look out of place. She didn't know where the next threat could come from, or when the environment could suddenly collapse on itself, revealing that grotesque nightmare lurking underneath. And sure enough, it didn't take long for something to register on her radar.

There was a scraping sound coming from the beginning of the station. Specifically, the passageway where she had come from. The noise grew closer until Alessa could hear it distinctly. And then it showed itself. 

Rounding the corner, two-charcoal skinned arms dragged themselves along the ground, hauling an incredibly deformed body now. It was her double from the Otherworld. Somehow the creature had made its way down here from the mall and was pursuing her. Briefly Alessa panicked. She recalled she had fired several shots into the creature, all without any effect. No matter what she did, it refused to give up. The creature regenerated itself almost instantly. 

But now Alessa had an edge, and she welcomed the chance to use it. She loaded up her shotgun and readied her aim. When the creature was in range, she fired. The thunderous blast struck the creature in the shoulder. The creature hesitated, but continued to move. Another blast struck the monster in the forehead. But the creature was still moving. She unloaded a third shot into it. The creature roared in pain and quickly rushed toward its aggressor, almost skittering on the ground. 

Alessa dodged out of the way as the creature slashed at her with a fearsome claw. Not thinking about it, she swung the pipe in an arc that connected with the creature’s skull. Letting the shotgun drop, she took a two-handed approach as she brought the pipe down on her opponent’s head. All her frustrations and anger over the day’s occurrences, over 13 years of carrying around horrible memories since her youth, exploded in an outburst of outrage as she mercilessly beat the living mockery of her suffering, not giving it a chance to strike. The pipe bent out of the stress of hammering the inhuman form, and Alessa realized she wouldn’t be able to beat it this way. Tossing the pipe aside, she grabbed the shotgun and got ready. As the creature lunged at her, Alessa shot it point-blank range in the head. There was a rain of blood as the monster halted in its tracks. The creature gave one final growl, then collapsed as its arms gave out under it.

It was dead.

Alessa gave a sigh of relief, mopping the sweat off her forehead. Finally she had triumphed over the adversary that represented her old memories. Alessa picked up the weapon she had discarded. It was stained with blood and bits of flesh. It was repulsive to look at, and she dare not touch it with both hands. Distantly she wondered if the blood had any effect on its own, or if it was ordinary blood. She wasn’t going to touch it – that was for sure. She sure didn’t want to have it poison her or anything. Alessa looked at the pipe. Bent and cracked from the monster’s hard body, it wasn’t going to be of much use. Tossing it aside, Alessa held her shotgun firmly. She would have to rely on it from now on. Her life was in its grasp.

The way out waited for her. 

She traversed down to the lower level through a stairway on the other side of that barricade. There was only one thing left to do, and that was get on the train that would take her away from this place. And sure enough, there was the subway on platform 3. The subway stretched across the platform, blocking her view of the other platform and effectively shielding her from any enemies. The sight was a relief for Alessa, who was weary of the constant battles and having to hide – finally she would get out of this nightmare. Strangely enough, the doors were all closed. But she paid it no mind. She wasn’t about to question her only way out of here. There was a lone door open at the other end. Alessa rushed to it with nary a thought.

Moments after she stepped in, the doors closed behind her, with a rather loud slam. Alessa turned back in surprise, but it was too late to get out, and she didn’t really want to leave the train anyway.

For better or worse, she was on her way.

 

~

 

The train sped past the darkness in the tunnel at breakneck speed. 

With nothing else to do, Alessa sat down on one of the benches. The train was empty, from what it looked liked, but she forced herself not to think that was an ominous sign. It was probably just late in the evening, and the conductor was blissfully unaware he had just sped past an overwhelming horror. She breathed a big sigh of relief. Finally she was away from there. It had taken her longer than she had imagined, but hopefully the horror of the subway station and the shopping mall was only a memory. She rubbed a tired forearm across her face. God, she was exhausted. She wanted nothing more than to go home and cry about how she was almost run over by a train, and the things she had been through thanks to that godforsaken place. She wanted to kill someone for what she’d been through, but hopefully her father would do it for her. She was done for the day. She couldn’t allow herself to believe that home wouldn’t be there when she arrived.

Suddenly Alessa noticed that the train wasn’t making any stops. Instead it sped along a never-ending tunnel of darkness, lights flashing as it went by, while never making any more to slow down. She checked around the train compartment, but there was only a door that led to the outside. _Oh no, what’s wrong with it now?_ She thought. It couldn’t be infected by that…thing that took over the mall, could it? She knew the conductor’s car had to be at the front, but getting there would mean a trip through several subway doors, something she wasn’t prone to doing. But it seemed she had no choice.

Alessa didn’t expect any trouble. Just in case, she armed her shotgun. She decided to check the other compartments one by one. Alessa carefully stepped into the next passenger car, heart beating a thousand miles a minute until she was fully inside. _That_ wasn’t something she would be trying again, after she was done with this whole thing…

The train was dark, more so than the last car. And as she stared into the shadows, she saw them coming.

_Oh God._

There were two of them, marching along with that odd gait of theirs, their purplish skin partially obscured by the shadows. They made that strange crying sound that sounded like a mewling baby; it was disturbing on so many levels. And they were coming straight for her. Alessa nearly reached for her pipe, before she remembered she had discarded it in the subway station. She would have to expend more ammo if she wanted to get past them.

She waited until they were both within reach, and then let loose with her weapon. A blast of her shotgun brought them down. Alessa stomped on one, and then disgustedly stomped on the other. She cringed as she heard the sickening crunch beneath her boot, but she was quickly getting used to it. 

The next car was all right. There was nothing unusual about it. But the car after that presented some trouble. There was a loud stomping coming from the darkness. “Oh God”, Alessa panicked, as the creature emerged from the shadows. It was huge, she realized; twice as big as the others she had killed. It even sounded more terrifying, as it stomped its way towards her. Holder her weapon in her trembling hands, Alessa fired one thunderous shot at the creature. The monster paused in its tracks, but it shook it off and kept coming. Really panicking now, Alessa blasted another shot at the purplish creature. The man-sized monster gave a momentary groan as it stumbled to the ground. Alessa quickly ran up and stepped on it before it could recover. She could have used her shotgun to bludgeon it to death, but there was no way she was getting her hands stained with the blood of that…thing.

Alessa wiped her forehead with her forearm. She was getting too antsy for this. She’d thought she was done with this stuff after leaving the subway platform. Why couldn’t they just leave her alone? What power had taken hold of the city, that all these things were targeting her and her alone?

The next car was empty. Briefly Alessa wondered where they were going. Where could they possibly be headed, that the train would keep going like this without making a single stop?

She hoped it wasn’t straight into Hell. She _really_ wasn’t ready to deal with _that_ realm again, all things considered. 

Finally she reached the last car before the conductor’s. The monster came out of the darkness with a heart-stopping stomp, its clawed feet making heavy thuds on the ground. Alessa nearly cried in frustration when she realized it was one of the big ones. Alessa blasted it once as it approached. She waited until it got closer, much closer, before she fired again, not wanting to miss this shot. She barely had enough ammo as it was. And then the monster did something that stunned Alessa. It leapt towards her, using its body as a hammer in an attempt to strike her. Alessa fell to the ground as she jumped back from the monster’s attack, trembling as she aimed the shotgun upwards. The blast drove back the monster with unwavering force, dropping it like a stone. Alessa stood up and struck it with the butt of her shotgun. She stomped on it to finish it off. 

Her heart was pounding. That was too close, she told herself. Next time, she would rather not wait until the monster was within three feet of her.

Alessa sat a moment to catch her breath. When she recovered, she stood up and examined the compartment.

She looked around the large passenger car, taking it all in to see if there was any detail that could prove useful. She found a box of shotgun rounds and pocketed the shells. Suddenly, she noticed that the door to the conductor’s car was showing darkness through its window. That was odd. She looked closer and to her shock, there was nothing but darkness. 

There was no other car after this one. 

The revelation left her stunned. If there was no other car for the conductor to be in, then who the hell was driving the train?

Alessa leaned back against the wall. She felt a little light-headed; like she needed to get some air into her system. This was getting to be too much. First all these monsters around and now a train that was driving itself. What the hell was going on around here? Suddenly, the train jerked violently as the invisible conductor slammed on the breaks. Alessa was thrown to the side, and she grasped onto the handrail as the train ground to a halt. The doors slid open with little fanfare, opening the gates into places unknown.

She was here.

The only problem was she didn’t know where ‘here’ was.

Alessa looked to see if there were any monsters coming, but the train remained empty. It was evident she had reached her destination – whatever place the forces behind this had chosen for her – and there was only one way to proceed. Gathering her shotgun, Alessa readied herself for what might come and emerged into the darkness outside.


	11. Through the Threshold

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Disclaimer: Silent Hill is owned by Konami.**
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> **AN:** After much thinking, I've decided to allow anonymous reviews. This is on a trial basis, since I don't know what the community on here is like. Think carefully before you respond; if you want to leave constructive criticism, do so politely. Remember, I can respond to you on here. ;-) Don't make me regret it.

**Chapter 9: Through the Threshold**

**Underground Passage/The Hilltop Center**

 

The train stop was dark from a lack of lights, and made of nondescript concrete. Alessa looked around. Where the hell was she? 

This certainly wasn’t her intended station. She remembered that station well, despite only having seen it once. The place looked more like a maintenance station than a regular train stop. There was graffiti nearby, carelessly painted on the walls. The phrases were so jammed together Alessa could barely make out what they were. There were gang symbols in between the scribbles, that much was obvious. Great. Good to know she was in a good location, she thought sarcastically. At least she had a shotgun with her, and a handgun. There was no one else around, from what she saw.

Alessa started walking down the platform. There was a feeling of being alone that Alessa didn’t like at all. She never expected to find herself in a place like this, and even without the demonic aspect of the situation, who knew who could be lurking down there? She wasn’t sure she should be down here at all, regardless of whether it was the only way through. 

There was only one door in the whole place, and it looked like it led to a storage closet. It turned out the door was an entryway to a stairwell leading down from the station. Strange, she would’ve thought it would lead up from the train station. She descended the stairs with some trepidation. Halfway down the stairs, Alessa noticed the air was growing colder around her. Something was happening to the stairwell too. The ground felt spongy beneath her – she dared not look down. Somehow she managed to block out what was happening around her, amidst the growing chill that seeped into her bones. It wasn’t until she caught a glimpse of the nightmare lurking around her, despite her best efforts, that Alessa drew back sharply. They were veins. Lining the walls, under her boots – a nightmarish tableau of interweaved red lines numbering in the hundreds.

Alessa hurried down the stairwell, partially closing her eyes to block out the nightmare around her. She couldn’t handle this. The darkness was all around her, not allowing her to see beyond the barest of details. Growls and the sounds of presences echoed around her; she was almost afraid to see what they were. Shadows moved in the periphery of her vision, and she only just managed to avoid them. There was a horrible, awful sound like a drilling dentist’s instrument or a power saw coming from around here, and she had only one guess as to what it could mean. There were veins all around, she was almost certain. It ground at her sanity, making her cold in ways she couldn’t describe. She felt disoriented as she ran, heart pounding in her chest so hard it hurt, until she ducked into a door that was unlocked.

The nightmare continued as she went deeper into the underground. Loud stomping sounds came from the darkness. Alessa was horrified to see large creatures emerging from the shadows, intent on crushing her with their brute strength. Alessa desperately tried to dodge them, knowing she could waste all her ammo on these things and leave herself defenseless. The walls around her were grotesque and moldy, literally living in the way the decay moved over them. Alessa almost couldn’t withstand the assault on her sanity, monsters and rotting disease everywhere.

One area was particularly bad. She had stepped into the area by mistake, thinking it would lead to something she could use, only to find herself trapped among various monsters. The stench was awful; the ground was spongy beneath her boots. She didn’t even want to contemplate the filth she was wandering in, but the growls and rumblings of the monsters told her there were greater things to worry about. She was almost on auto-pilot, dodging and running from the monsters, and trying to keep herself from being overwhelmed by the reality of it all.

A brutal gale force struck her out of nowhere, knocking her to the ground. She looked up to realize one of the giant monsters had caught up with her, towering over her with its six foot frame. She fired several rounds at its head with her handgun, holding her upper body while she fired. God, it hurt. But she couldn’t allow that to distract her. Grabbing her shotgun, she fired a blast at the monster’s skull, sending it flying back. Alessa watched the dying creature flailing on the ground, but she didn’t bother to finish it off. Summoning all of her energies, she ran towards the door the thing had been keeping her from reaching. 

 

~

 

Alessa walked through a tight dark corridor she had found herself in. The rocky ceiling was low to the ground and the walls were tightly packed in. She found it strange there would be a place like this under a train station, at first, but then she realized this was a sewer. The train station must near or connected to an underground passageway somewhere. She was glad that at least there were no monsters following her. Suddenly, she felt a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. A hazy vision took hold in her consciousness…

_“Stay back!” Cybil Bennett shouted, pointing her gun at the barred door. A tremendous force pounded against the door, accompanied by a growl that sounded like a bestial roar._

_Cybil backed away from the door. Powerful blows rained down on the door, cracking the wood with brutal force, until the sound of the door getting cracked open jarred the ambience in the room._

_The police officer fired several shots. There was the sound of metal being dragged along the ground, and then a sickening thud as something heavy connected with flesh. The sound of a body hitting the floor echoed in the room._

_“Cybil!” a female scream sounded across the room._

Alessa dropped to her knees. The vision was overwhelming in its intensity. Her family was in danger. The life she had built for herself was in danger of falling apart. She needed to get out of here, and return home where she could defend her loved ones from whatever the hell was happening. With renewed purpose, Alessa set off further into the cave.

There was a large barrier in place, blocking further entry into the passageway. The wall was flesh toned with organic-like textures, and seemed almost like a feature in some living organism. Alessa stabbed the barrier with her knife and slit downwards, ripping the skin-like substance and exposing some pink, fleshy textures inside the vertical opening. The image they presented was of things Alessa would rather not think about, but she had no choice. She squeezed through the makeshift opening, cringing at the moistened textures rubbing against her. 

The following experiences were a collage of horrors that Alessa wouldn’t recall clearly later, save in her deepest, darkest nightmares. Creatures came out of the shadows, and she struggled to evade them.

Using a wine bottle she had found, she collected some fuel for a machine of some kind and poured it into the fuel tank, once she went back to the room where the peculiar contraption lay. There was a moment where she hesitated when she took the bottle – a body was crushed under the crates where it lay on, the gruesome mangled remains jutting out from the crates in a macabre display of gore. Alessa held her hand over her mouth to avoid throwing up, but managed to take the bottle she needed to hold the fuel for the machine. Once she poured it in, the machine drained the water from a nearby opening that had been flooded up until now. The ladder obviously led down to the lower level of the sewer; this place was like a puzzle, with one obstacle after the other. Alessa hesitated, before venturing into the dark passageway below. 

The stench was nearly unbearable, just as she expected a sewer would be. The underground passage above wasn’t that bad, but this was absolutely hellacious. Alessa felt nausea, dizziness, and an insufferable lack of air hit her all at once. She winced as she walked over the muck, her boots making squishy, disgusting sounds as she stepped on the sewage. “Oh, God,” she mumbled to herself, needing to cover her mouth and nose. She couldn’t get out of there fast enough. 

There was one section in the area in which she completely lost it. The walls were pulsating with blood, monsters stomped in the distance, and she was entirely surrounded by gore and pulsing flesh. There was no light in this corner of the sewers, save what little was afforded her by her flashlight, which revealed the horrors that lay around her. The scene was utterly nightmarish, and Alessa felt her sanity deteriorating the more time she spent in that gruesome blood covered hell, until she couldn’t stand it anymore. She ran. She ran through the hallways, rushed past the monsters that couldn’t even touch her and were lumbering all around her, frantic out of her mind, until she finally found a room that was unlocked. 

Alessa stumbled into the room, nearly overcome with fright. Her heart was pounding thunderously and she was absolutely drenched in sweat. She couldn’t go any further. She wanted to just lie down and curl in a ball with her knees close to her chest. Her body was exhausted – too many battles, too much strenuous ‘fleeing for her life’ she wasn’t used to. But something drove her on. She didn’t know what it was – maybe it was love for her parents, the ones she had claimed for herself. Maybe it was a desire to survive. 

Alessa looked at the workbench nearby. She was obviously in some kind of storage space for the workers to get ready before entering the tunnels. Near to that was a sight Alessa never expected to see in a sewer facility. There was a mace with thick metal spikes, like the ones in a medieval movie. It looked like the type of weapon that could cause some damage, but Alessa decided to skip it. She couldn’t even lift the thing, never mind use it as a weapon. It was super heavy, and she could barely budge it beyond a few inches. Distantly, Alessa wondered who would use this as a weapon, but she had given up trying to figure out the why’s of this ordeal long ago.

There was one other thing of notice, though. There was a bloody outline outside the locker, and Alessa could see it was crusted over the door. Oh God, had someone killed someone with that mallet and stuffed them unto the locker? It was a very likely possibility at this point. Alessa wanted to look inside, and yet at the same time, she didn’t. It was a very curious sensation, like when you watched a horror movie while peeking through your hands, afraid of what was to come, yet unable to resist the temptation.

The ordeal continued, offering trials and tribulations, until she reached a room that looked like an office. There were memos and papers scattered all about the room, most of them about sewage work, no doubt. And there was that symbol again, in the corner of the room. Ignoring it for now, Alessa focused on the more important thing. She saw that a few of the memos were curiously different from the others. They were handwritten, and looked to be letters from someone. Alessa picked them up, curiously examining them.

_About the monster in the water_  
 _There’s a monster in the water. The_  
 _bastard's killed 2 of my buddies._

_I should never have doubted that_  
 _old urban legend about alligators_  
 _in the sewers. That was no myth._

_But no one believes me. They were_  
 _drunk and slipped? We’re not that_  
 _damn stupid._

_Even calling it a monster isn't quite_  
 _right. This is something else. All I_  
 _know is…something's in there._

_I’m going in now to beat that thing's_  
 _head in. If you find this note,_  
 _consider it my will._

_Revenge is futile -- or so you may_  
 _think, reading this. But Jose and_  
 _Jaime were my best buddies._

_Wish I knew how to do the deed._  
 _Guns won't work underwater._  
 _Even my famous knifework won't_  
 _do much. If only I had a hand_  
 _grenade…_

Alessa set the papers down with an ominous feeling. So these were pages of someone’s journal. And she had a feeling about what had happened to its owner. It didn’t take a genius to figure out. Alessa knew she had to go into the other room. But the question of a monster being a presence in the sewers bothered her. If this sewer worker was to be believed, then monsters were already filtering unto the real world from this place, long before this ever started. And then there was the fact it had killed three men. Alessa wasn’t fazed by it, though. She would go into the other room with the monster and kill it. It was what she did.

However, the question of ‘how’ was relevant. Guns and knives didn’t work, obviously. She could blow it out of existence with her shotgun, but first it had to come out of the water, and there was the problem. She had to lure it out of the water, or at least close enough to the surface for her blasts to have an effect on it. But how was that accomplished?

And then she got an idea.

 

~

 

Alessa stared at the pool filled with tepid brown water. _So, there’s something in the water_ , she thought. She stared at the object in her hands. She had seen it earlier, lying in pile of junk while passing through a filtering chamber. She had gone back and gotten it from the garbage pit as quickly as she could, while formulating a quick plan in her head. As she’d expected, the power outlet in the room provided the perfect resource. She hoped it worked as expected. _Well then, why don’t we see how it handles this!?_ And then, she threw the hairdryer she had gotten into the water, after making sure it was firmly plugged in. The effect was instantaneous. The water sparked with electrical currents as the electricity passed through the blower. At first there was nothing unusual. Moments later, a tentacle emerged from the pool of brown water, laying limply on the surface. It was dead.

_Yes!_ Alessa gave an internal shout of satisfaction. She knew that would get the job done, or at least she hoped it worked as well as it always did on TV or the movies. A pity the sewer worker trying to destroy the thing hadn’t thought of it. She crossed the bridge with the fallen tentacle floating nearby, barely giving it a passing glance, as she passed by the lifeless corpse.

The next area was devoid of creatures, thankfully. The tunnel was brightly lit and didn’t smell as foul as the ones that preceded it. It seemed she was coming out for the sewers. And never was Alessa more relieved than when she realized there was a ladder at the end of it. She climbed the stairs with a sense of giddiness and anticipation as she focused on not losing her footing while climbing.

 

~

 

Alessa experienced a distinct lack of light as she climbed out of the passageway. She used what strength she had left to hoist herself out of the sewer entry, as she found her footing on the ground. Standing up wearily, she breathed a considerable sigh of relief. Finally she was away from that dank, garbage smelling underground hell. 

Alessa looked around at her surroundings. The night sky loomed above her, a black, featureless tableau that stretched over the area in all directions. No stars were visible, perhaps a product of the city’s lights. Or maybe it was just cloudy tonight. Alessa looked back at the structure behind her, enclosed by a fence with plastered walls. It seemed she was in a construction site of some kind, behind the back of some building. Good. It should be easy to find a way out of here.

For a weary moment, she let the warm night air simply brush across her face invigoratingly. Never had she been so glad to be in an open environment. Just being out here, away from that place, served to refresh her energy and imbue her with a sense of purpose.

Despite everything she had endured, she was still all right.

Now all she had to do was find a way out of here, and she could go home like she planned. She took a large breath of air, gulping air into her lungs. It wasn’t that clean, but it was better than the rank sewer atmosphere in the underground. Now she didn’t have to hold her nose anymore, or restrain herself from retching due to the nauseating smell of the sewer air she’d encountered down there. God, never had she thought she would ever go wading through a sewer system, searching for a way to get home. 

She knew it was a necessary task, but she almost pitied those who had to work down there. The lack of light, the grimy and soiled environment, and God forbid, the stench, was almost more than she could bear. If she had stayed 15 minutes more in that hellish tunnel system, she would have vomited all the contents of her stomach, not just some. 

As she rounded the corner, another of the tall grotesque creatures came lunging at her. Alessa quickly shot at it with her shotgun, and the blast was strong enough to knock the creature to the ground. Alessa breathed a sign to calm herself. She was getting used to these animals coming out of the woodwork, but not quickly enough.

The building was clearly still half under construction. Alessa saw building materials scattered around the site. She went up to the others floors via the stairs, since it was obvious the elevator was not working.

Alessa was frustrated as she went up the stairs. All the doors were locked, preventing the exploration of those floors as a way to get out of here, leaving only the top floor as the only option. The last thing she wanted was to go to the top floor of the building, but it seemed she had no choice. 

She kept her senses ready in case there were any unpleasant surprises waiting for her. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. There were a few boxes around of building materials around, and a bathroom for the employees. Strangely, the bathroom showed signs of use. It wasn’t what she expected to find, considering this was another dimension. Alessa wanted to use the sink to clean herself up, but there was no water coming out of the faucets. Damn. It looked like she would have to stay caked with dirt and sweat for a while longer. She went through a blue door close to her and found herself on a floor that was still under construction. The gray walls of the floor had not been painted at all, and framework was still sticking out of the walls.

Some feature that didn’t appear to be part of the design was a large hole in the middle of the room. Alessa took a look at the small makeshift home set up nearby and the collection of bottles surrounding it. So someone was living here. One of the walls appeared to be of a distinctly different color than the others, and a different texture. Alessa went closer to it and her eyes widened at the sight before her. This was definitely _not_ something she expected to find at a construction site. _Jesus_ , Alessa thought in disbelief. The legs sticking out of the cement wall made it clear just what had happened. Someone had been buried completely inside the cement wall. Alessa prayed they weren’t alive when it happened, but she had a sinking feeling that wasn’t the case. Shaking away the thoughts of murder and disposing of bodies, she focused on what she needed to do, ignoring the thoughts of people suffocating under a thick layer of cement.

She needed to get down to the lower floor. The floor was not anywhere close to her, though. It was at least 12 feet in the drop. Alessa knew she couldn’t risk going down from that height, or else she would break her leg. She needed a padding of some kind. And then, she got an idea. The person who was living here had set up a makeshift tent for their home, but they weren’t sleeping on the cold hard floor. She dragged the mattress the squatter had been using to sleep on inch by painful inch, and then threw it down the hole with no small effort. Alessa hated to touch the thing, but she needed something to cushion the fall. Praying she didn’t fall on her neck, Alessa jumped down to the mattress below.

The consequence was actually rather anti-climatic. She landed perfectly on her feet, using the mattress to cushion her jump. Breathing a sigh of relief, Alessa moved off the mattress and looked for an exit. The door was locked, as usual. Her heart sank as she realized there was only one exit out of this place: a hole torn into the concrete of the wall, leading to the outside of the building.

The scaffolding outside surrounded the whole building, and was obviously left there as a part of construction, connecting to a building nearby. Alessa carefully set foot on the scaffolding, holding onto the concrete for balance. The scaffolding was wide enough to walk on, but if she took a wrong step, she would fall into the black void below. She was trembling as she began to walk the scaffolding step by solitary step, using her arms to try to balance herself. Suddenly the sound of the worst nightmare she could have pierced her auditory sense, as she heard the sound of drilling nearby in the air. _No, not here!_ She screamed to herself. She struggled to remain calm, and had to force herself not to fire her weapon as the spinning bladed creature glided much too close to her. If she didn’t bother them, they wouldn’t bother her; or so she hoped. It wasn’t fair. _How could they get up here? They’re not supposed to be able to fly!_ She took perilous step by perilous step, until she reached the corner where the ramp was pinned by two buildings. She sped up her steps and then rushed into an open window of the nearby building when she saw one.

Once inside, the relief resonated in waves all over her body. Alessa took a deep breath, and placed her hand on her chest. _Oh God_ , that was too tough. Climbing scaffoldings while monsters circled the building…this place wanted to kill her. There was no other explanation. It was throwing challenge after challenge at her, until one moment she would slip – and that would be it for her existence. She needed to find a way out of here. She couldn’t take much more of this. She had half a mind to close the window, but she doubted they could get in there. They wouldn’t fit, and she wasn’t going to be here long. 

She cast a cursory glance around. So she was in a mannequin store: she could see the papers for ordering pieces of them, and boxes of them stacked high in the office. This was their headquarters, and she presumed they had a display room around here or something. She didn’t really know anything about how a company like this was really run, or what they required for their business. She just wanted to get out of here.

She roamed the halls searching for any room that was open, noticing how little space there was available for her to defend herself. She couldn’t help but notice all the memos and notes posted along the walls, indicating that this building was very much in use. She tried door after door in the hallway, until she found one that was open and ducked inside. Only a minute too late did she realize she had wondered into a mannequin storeroom. Alessa jumped back a bit, startled by the sight of plastic and limbs scattered before her. She didn’t jump easily in fright, but the sight of a plastic mold with limbs outstretched in the form of a person was something that could easily startle one into thinking there was someone in the room with them. Ew, Alessa cringed, looking at the rows of shelves stacked with mannequin parts. She had imagined there was a display room for them, but she didn’t expect to run headlong into it.

Alessa stared at the rows of mannequins arranged on the shelves. It felt like the eyes were literally alive as they stared at her. It was creepy. She could almost feel them following her, as she walked around the room. There was one in particular that really gave her the creeps. It was only a bottomless mannequin with no legs, settled in the back on a stand, but the top half seemed like it was almost alive.

Alessa shuddered as she checked out the other side of the shelf. All these disembodied hands and legs…how could anyone stand to work in this place? She almost felt like they were going to come alive suddenly and grab her.

_Settle down, Alessa_ , she told herself, _it’s just a group of mannequins._ That was all they were. Plastic body parts, in the shape of well-proportioned females – creepy to the nth degree, but only body parts nonetheless. She tried to use humor to settle down her nerves, as she usually did when faced with an abhorrent situation. She wondered whether anyone ever molested the mannequins; they certainly had enough room in here to do so. Locked in here, a pervert could easily make use of these hideous things. People would think the door was locked, and they needed maintenance to open it, when really, it was just some sick guy having his jollies. Suddenly a scream startled her out of her wits and caused her to raise her gun in alarm. Alessa hurried to the other side, and what she was flabbergasting.

The mannequin was settled over a pool of crimson, and it was headless. Somehow, something had knocked the head right off its shoulders; an invisible force that decapitated the poor thing instantly.

And it was bleeding…

Alessa felt her heart seize in her throat. No, it wouldn’t be…she was joking earlier, wasn’t she? Alessa knelt down to examine the puddle, and her stomach began to churn. It was blood. Human blood. She would recognize that coppery smell anywhere. Somehow, someone had filled this thing with human blood in order to frighten someone, or…

Alessa felt a nauseous feeling beginning to take her over. She backed away from the gruesome sight, fighting to keep the contents of her stomach. The images formed in her mind unwanted: pale white bodies…bleeding as they were slashed…flesh under the guise of plastic…

She couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Alessa turned and walked out of the room, eyes never once looking back to the rows of mannequins behind her.

The next room she gained access to wasn’t much better. “Monica’s Dance Studio” was the name of this corner of the building. Hmm, curious. She had never been inside a dance studio before. Alessa turned the knob carefully, although without readying her shotgun in case of an emergency; there didn’t seem to be much danger in this particular building. She quickly shut it back again when she saw the giant mass of tumors near the back of the room and the _dogs_ wandering on the ground, searching through bandaged eyes for their new meal. _Oh God_ , Alessa shuddered. She wasn’t prepared to be faced with that that at all. She brought a hand up to her chest, feeling her heart hammering underneath. She couldn’t walk into any room without being prepared. She shouldn’t be feeling surprised, she supposed; she was worried about the monsters from _outside_ getting in here, and the monsters were already _in here_ with her. God damn.

The office building suddenly took on a whole new, intimidating demeanor. How many of these rooms held monsters in them, waiting to attack her? Alessa shuddered to think of the rooms in this office building being filled with those creatures. She needed to go into some of them, to figure out a way out of here. It probably wasn’t as easy as just taking the elevator down. But how could she do that if they were _everywhere_? She was beginning to feel like she would never find a way out of here, but she knew if gave into that feeling she would be screwed. She had to keep going, no matter what the obstacle. 

The office of the dance studio didn’t yield much, except a map of the office building. A big help that was, considering half the doors were locked in here. It seemed she was on the third floor of the building: it made sense considering how she had crossed from another building through the window, literally. By mere chance, she stumbled into the locker room of the dance studio. She examined her surroundings closely, hoping she could find anything useful inside the lockers. There were two magazines sitting on a table top nearby, left behind by some employees. One of the magazines featured a scantily clad woman in a risqué pose, and the other was a periodical about fashion. Alessa had read one of them already, and she wasn’t interested in fashion. Unfortunately, there was nothing else worthy of notice in the room. Disappointed, she left the locker room.

She searched the other rooms she found on the floor, before realizing this part of the building had nothing left to offer her. The only bounty she had found was a screwdriver. Alessa took it; it would do in a pinch, she supposed, if she ran out of ammo and needed something to stick the eye of a creature with. There was another thing too, but she doubted it would come in useful. She felt like she was almost stuffing things into her backpack at random by now, hoping they would come in useful. She needed to get to other floors. There had to be a way of reaching the first floor, without breaking a window and trying to climb down some fire escape, which wasn’t even an option at this time – considering most of the offices were locked.

She also had to find some weapons that she could use. She knew they were coming; it was only a matter of time. She really didn’t want to use up all of her shotgun bullets in this building. If it was this bad in these buildings, she didn’t want to imagine what it would be like out in the streets. She hadn’t even looked outside through the windows, for fear of what she would see. But what could she find in a place like this? This place was a set of office, not an armory or a gun shop! Damn it, she had really gotten into it this time. She couldn’t think of any easy solution, and the fact this place was so confined scared her. If she got into trouble, there was no way anybody would be able to reach her to help her, even if there _was_ anybody left to answer her call in the first place. 

She sighed as she fell to her knees, feeling tired from the night’s ordeals, which seemed to have no end in sight. How was she going to get out of here?

 

~

 

The fifth floor was deserted like the others, but it proved to be a bounty among the leftover debris and scattered remnants of business that defined the others here. Fortunately for Alessa, the business here proved to be more useful, or at least one of them did, and she was able to find quite a treasure in the most unlikely of places. 

There was a door at the end of one hall. Alessa stared at it curiously: the sign read “Gallery of Fine Arts”, and was something she most definitely didn’t expect to find in a drab office building like this. Curiously stirred, she went inside, hoping to find something wondrous and beautiful to distract her from her current troubles, for a moment or two. She couldn’t help it: she was curious to see what kind of paintings the artists here had gifted the gallery with.

The room was small, like others in the complex. Alessa was disappointed: there were only a few paintings in the gallery. She surveyed the objects around the room. There were a few ceramic vases on display – they weren’t really Alessa’s thing. One of the paintings was a nice green and white, grassy, hilly scenery called “Mountain”, and radiated a nice calm and soothing effect to look at. One of the paintings instantly caught her attention, and Alessa immediately rushed up to it. A dark backdrop dominated the canvas hanging on the wall, and a detailed image of a beautifully crafted nude woman with flowing dark hair and piercing brown eyes stood out from the swirling shadows, in an almost reclining pose against the void. _Wow, now this is a good image_ , she thought in astonished approval. Whoever painted this picture did exquisite work. It was so _lifelike_! Alessa felt her face warm a bit. She was getting a little turned on herself now, staring at the lifelike image of the gorgeous, mysterious creature in the painting. The painting was called “Harbinger of Midnight”, and the creator was apparently an up-and-coming artist on the art circuit. Strange, it kinda looked like her. The face was near to her features, and the wavy black hair was a little too close to hers. Alessa shuddered; suddenly, she didn’t want to know where the artist was getting his inspiration from. Visions of the artist being able to _‘see’_ into her destiny filled her mind. She moved on to the next painting.

The small frame was nothing more than a colorful collection of squares, a collection of Navajo weaves that went down for several rows about a foot in length. Alessa stared at the price and gasped in shock. _$5,000…!_ What the hell!? Man, what kind of world was this, where someone could charge $5,000 for this? 

It wasn’t that she disliked it or anything, but still…

And there was one more thing that captured her attention. The area where the painting should have been was blank, with only a faint outline visible on the wall. Wherever the painting had gone to, there was only the name plaque left. “Flame Purifies All” – Oh, she didn’t like the sound of that. Memories of flames consuming her assaulted her mind, and she forced herself to think of something else. Shit, this couldn’t happen; not now. 

There was one more painting to review, hanging near the registration desk. The painting was a mass of swirling green and black colors, with the almost-shape of a human in the middle obscured by all the chaotic colors around it. What the hell kind of painting was this? She read the title of the painting, “Repressor of Memories”. Oh, that wasn’t a swipe at her, was it? She didn’t repress anything in her memories; she just chose not to dwell on things that drove her insane in the past if she thought about them. She checked the registration clip on the desk. There were a few names written there, but no one that she was familiar with.

She brushed past the directory, going through an exit from the art gallery, casting one final look at the blank space on the wall where a painting should be. She found herself in a small, cramped corridor. It seemed that this whole area back here belonged to the art gallery, apparently serving as a storage space. Almost all of the doors were locked, except for a single door that led to a storage area. Alessa wandered into the room, drawing her weapon in case it was necessary.

The room was filled with wooden crates, stacked on shelves and set on the floor for storage. Art objects covered in tarps and fragile vases lined the room. The shelves were full of paintings, and large frames were stored close together on the bottom shelve. Alessa used a crowbar she had found to pry open the lid of the huge crate in the middle, not sure what she was expecting. Some antique statues, perhaps, or some vases and collectibles. She reached through the shreds of packing material and pulled out a beautifully crafted sword, completely with a black ornate handle and gleaming from the metal sheen. _Oh my God._ It was a long katana, complete with a sheath to store the sword on her back. Alessa’s eyes widened and her jaw fell open in awe. She had seen her father use one of these things, but she never expected to find one in an office building! 

She swung the sword around experimentally, holding it reverently in her hands. She knew a bit about wielding weapons of this caliber, but she wasn’t an expert, and the prospect actually filled her with a little trepidation. It was a katana. Alessa couldn’t believe it. It was a katana, and she had actually found it here in a deserted office building. She needed a break, and she found one in the most unexpected of places. _Someone_ had to be looking out for her, for her to find a weapon like this. Alessa’s lips twisted in a smirk as she stared at the gleaming blade and held the sword carefully. Oh yes, this would do to turn the tide against those creatures, very well indeed. She smiled at the carnage she could wreak with this thing.

She strapped the leather sheath onto her back; with the backpack under it was a bit difficult, but she would manage. For an advantage like this, she would easily accept a little inconvenience if it meant having a permanent weapon to use against those things. She slid the sword into the sheath, suddenly feeling a bit more emboldened than she was before. 

Her resolve was tested when she in the hallway heading back to the stairway. The creature came out of the corner and into her line of view. It was one of those purple veiny things from the subway, and it was heading straight for her. She knew these things weren’t really a big threat, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to defend herself. She gave it one chance, in case the creature wanted to do something else and thought to preserve its life. It didn’t. And that was enough of that. Alessa drew the ornate sword from its sheath. Let’s see how this thing worked. Alessa slashed the pale creature across its torso, drawing a cry of pain from the creature. She struck a second time with the sword, catching it along the same area. She watched the blood splash across her face, but she didn’t care, as she creature stumbled against the wall. She slashed a third time with the sword, this time sending it to the ground. The creature struggled to breath, as the blood poured from the wounds Alessa had inflicted on it. Alessa bared her teeth, and then she drove the katana point first into the creature’s torso, impaling it on the metal sword. The creature drew breath one last time, and then lay still. Alessa withdrew the sword from the creature’s body, still breathing heavily as she glared as the demon. She knew she should have felt some hesitation or revulsion at her actions, but all she could think of was how glad she was that this thing was dead. She felt a thrill different from any other she had felt before, the adrenaline in her system still keeping her in a state of increased awareness. She marveled at the power of this weapon, before she finally started to calm down.

If these things wanted to mess with her, then they were going to learn she wasn’t going down without a fight. She was going to kill them, it was a simple as that. And she would enjoy doing so; every single minute of it.

 

~

 

Alessa surveyed the lobby around her, looking for any hint of where to go next. She had arrived down here in the third floor after climbing down from an elevator shaft with a rope, after retrieving a jack from an auto company and using it to pry open the doors of an elevator. This place was like a labyrinth, placing well thought out obstacles in front of her she had to think through in order to continue her progress. On the plus side, she was glad to know her instincts weren’t becoming dull. The rope had indeed come in handy. 

So did the screwdriver, although not in the way she expected. Rather than stabbing someone with it, it was a tool, using it to pry open the drawer in the auto shop. She didn’t know who had left the damn thing locked, but she would kick the hell out of them right now if she could for making things so damn difficult for her.

Alessa looked around for any clue where to go next. That fifth floor had been useful, but she was on her own now. She knew there was no way to climb up that elevator again, without considerable effort, and she didn’t have the energy to try. Alessa simply hoped she hadn’t missed anything of value up there. Whatever was down here, she would have to make do with it. She was nearing the end of this little journey. All she had to do was find a way down to the first floor and find the exit, and she was out of here.

Alessa pulled out her map to see what was on this floor. Oh great, she was caught between a mental clinic and a furniture store. She decided to go through the furniture store first. Naturally, all the exits were locked; it wouldn’t be that simple, and the other elevator didn’t have any power. She would have to go through the store. Perhaps she could climb out a window; it was only the second floor, and she only needed to reach the first floor. She didn’t have to drop all the way down. Even if she did, she would take her chances rather than being stuck here all day.

The lights were turned off in the furniture shop, save for some small lamps on the walls in the form of antique lights. The floor was done in all mahogany boards, which she was supposed was fitting for a floor and furniture shop. Her boots clacked loudly on the wooden boards as she walked. She hated this absolute silence. There was something unnatural in not hearing anything: any speech, the ticking of a clock, activity of any kind…it just wasn’t right for things to be so quiet. It made her feel like something was going to jump out at her out of every corner. There were some assorted pieces of furniture positioned about the room: a colorful striped couch, a reddish brown reclining chair, tables, bookcases, and other home furnishings. Alessa found the pieces rather gross, to be honest: this was obviously a display center for the company’s various pieces, rather than someplace for buying them off the floor, but everything here needed a good cleaning over in her view. She sure wouldn’t buy anything here, that was for sure. There were two dog statues beside the couch, in the shape of Dalmatians. Alessa smiled: she didn’t like dogs much, if they were large enough, but these were nice enough, until she saw the price. _500 dollars…!?_ She thought in shock. What was with this building and the number five followed by several zeros!? Alessa shook her head in astounded disbelief. There were no windows of any kind, so her plan was not possible for this portion of the building.

The next room in the furniture shop was for bathroom fixtures. Alessa surveyed the fixtures in mild approval: they made good bathtubs, she had to admit, staring at a bathtub in the middle of the room, although they could certainly use a good cleaning too. She went into a nearby bathroom hoping to get some fresh water and to her surprise water actually _came out of the sink_! _Oh thank God._ She drenched her face in the purifying liquid, feeling it running through her fingers in a cool sensation she had missed. She felt a lot cleaner now. Although she didn’t have soap, at least her hands weren’t drenched in blood anymore. Her face felt sticky with the stuff, too. Only for a moment she did she stop to question why water would come out of this place when so many other places were completely dead with regards to functionality. This whole place was screwed up, anyway. What she wouldn’t give to be lying in a bathtub filled with bubbles right now, in a quiet, relaxing environment where she knew she was safe. She owed it to herself to take a long, relaxing bath after this was over. 

Yes, there was the good kind of quiet and the bad kind, and Alessa was definitely looking forward to the good kind. She just had to find a way out of here.

The final room in the furniture store’s neck of the office building didn’t hold much, just some shelves and some cardboard boxes scattered across the room. This was obviously a storage area, and not one that had seen much recent use, judging by the level of cleanliness. The room was just as grimy and dirty as the rest of the store, and Alessa wondered just what kind of store would allow their space to fall into such conditions. Was the building undergoing renovation, or was the store just in that much trouble to bother with cleaning the shop space? Alessa felt a little grimy herself just standing in it. There was a single bathtub placed in the middle of the room, which baffled her. She supposed they were storing it, but she would have thought there would be others here. She looked about the storage room. There was no way out of the room, beside the one she came through. Her attention turned back to the bathtub. There was something about her that was unsettling her. The bathtub was just as filthy as the rest of the store, with rust and grime staining its porcelain white body. 

She knelt down to examine the tub. It seemed to have no extraordinary features of any kind, and for all intents and purposes, was just a regular bathtub. The drain cover was unplugged, but other than that, there was nothing unusual about it. She got up to her feet. There was nothing in here for her, which meant she was going to have to go to the mental health clinic. Great, she had been avoiding going there, fearful of what she might find, but it seemed she would have to check it out to see if she could find a way out. Suddenly, a gurgling sound made her turn back to the bathtub. She peered close into the bathtub, wondering what the hell was happening. It seemed like something was coming up. Out of the blue, a burst of black sludge rose up from the drain, bubbling, and began to rapidly fill up the bathtub’s white form. The smell was awful, and immediately struck her senses with an almost physical blow. Alessa tried to get away, but the door was locked. Shit. Suddenly, a knifing pain assaulted her mind. Alessa cried out as the most painful headache she had ever had tore throughout her brain. She was knocked to her knees by the force of the effect, and watched, in horror, as all around her the storage room began to decay. A powerful wave of rotting effect swept throughout the building, layers peeling off the walls in a dripping organic mess, as the effect revealed a hideous decayed atmosphere underneath and the building literally rotted itself from the inside out. _No, not again!_ Alessa cried out mentally in feverish denial. She wasn’t going to go through that again! She tried to get up, but the pain was simply too great.

She couldn’t even draw her weapon, in case something was attacking her. She cried out in anguish, holding her head and trying to stop the blinding pain that was literally bringing tears up to her eyes. She thought her head was going to explode, and she sobbed as she felt her stomach doing wrenching turns from the pain. Mercifully she passed out before the pain became even worse, and the last thing she saw was Hell above her, welcoming her with its blood red walls and all encompassing rust that defined its gruesome characteristics.

The darkness overtook her conscious self. A voice made its way into her mind, sounding distant and clear simultaneously. _“It’s being invaded by the Otherworld. By a world of someone’s nightmarish delusions come to life…”_ She recognized the voice, and she wondered what it was doing in her mind at this time. She gave herself over to complete sleep, as the brief moment of subconscious clarity slipped away from her.

She didn’t know how long she was out; how long she laid there on the dirty building floor. Eventually her senses returned to her, gradually making her aware of her surroundings.

Alessa woke up in a haze of disorientation. She winced when she realized she was touching the bloody storage room floor, drawing back in disgust. Alessa pushed herself up tiredly, straining as she stretched her ravaged body into standing position.

And it was then Alessa awoke into a nightmare.


	12. Vincent

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Disclaimer: Silent Hill belongs to Konami.**
> 
>  
> 
> **AN:** Alessa's cursing might seem out-of-character here, but considering she's just been assaulted by a man she doesn't know and she's been put through the ringer, I think she's liable to explode a little bit. ;-D

**Chapter 10: Vincent**

**Alternate Hilltop Center - Part 1**

 

The darkness encompassed the room all around her, leaving her flashlight as the only source of light in the room. “Damn it!” she cursed, kicking the bathtub in anger. She was here again in the Otherworld. Rivulets of blood flowed from the bathtub, staining the gleaming porcelain with vein-like streaks of crimson. Alessa wrapped her arms around herself and looked around at her new surroundings.

The air was cold around her, like the icy grips of Death. The walls reeked of mold and decay, disease and blood. Metal grating had replaced the drywall in a lot of the sections. She walked on a tiled floor, stained with blood and mildew.

The room had turned into a dark, imposing corridor, even though it was only a few feet long. Alessa trembled as she walked towards the exit, shaky with a bone chilling feeling of dread. Something nasty was about to happen, she knew it. She held her shotgun firmly in front of her, ready to blast it in case something jumped out to slash at her. Alessa looked at a picture of a white-toothed smile, hanging on the wall behind a grating. Strange. That smile seemed familiar, for some reason.

The room led into another office that was once the display center, now transformed by the reality warping power of this realm. There was a wheelchair in the room, sitting there as if it was the most normal thing in the world. There was a doll sitting in the wheelchair, and it appeared to be a baby, wrapped in bandages. Alessa shuddered; something about the bandaged thing was unsettling her, and it wasn’t just the bad memories that it brought up. This couldn’t be a real baby here, could it? Not even this place would be that sick, she hoped. But that was nothing compared to the centerpiece of the room, which lay right ahead. Situated in a section of the wall between two chain-link gratings was a corpse hanging from its left arm, dressed in the ceremonial robes of a priest and knee-high black boots. Its head was melted off into a grotesque parody of a human skull, and in its right hand it held a much smaller figure, dangling over the bottomless hole. The bandaged doll held the hand of the much bigger body, like a parent holding the hand of a child. Alessa brought her hand over her mouth, gasping in shock from the sheer macabre nature of the sight. What in God’s name was this!? This was horrible; she had no other term for it. 

Did it symbolize something? She didn’t want to know. She had to get out of here. She couldn’t stay here and stare at that thing any longer.

The floor was dark on the other side as well. A slight discernible noise caught her attention. The noise grew in strength the more she listened to it. Alessa shuddered in the frigid air. The noise sounded like the crumbling of paper, or the sound a bird would make, if it were warped to a monstrous degree.

It became a crescendo as something grew closer. Alessa aimed her shotgun at the darkness. Something was coming, and very quickly by the sound of it. But when she saw she still had time to find cover, she made a decision. Alessa ducked into a nearby door and slammed it shut behind her. She was relieved when she realized she was alone in here, with only a withering plant for companionship. She wasn’t a coward, but she was in no hurry to see what was approaching her. This wasn’t a horror movie, where characters followed stupid rules regardless of common sense. This was real life – the side most people never saw, and if she didn’t make the right decisions, she was going to get killed.

A gleaming object on the bench caught her eye; she spotted it standing out against the dark leather thanks to its white color. She picked it up and froze. It was a picture of her! What the hell was this doing here? More disturbing was what was written on the back. She turned it over and discovered an unsettling message. “Find the Holy One. Kill her?” she read aloud. Was someone trying to kill her? A shudder went throughout her. Someone was apparently stalking her. This had to have been taken recently, judging by the outfit she was wearing. The background seemed to be the mall. Alessa narrowed her eyes. This had to belong to that detective. So, he wasn’t a normal bystander like he claimed. He was actually knowledgeable about the Order, and he had been sent to kill her. All that questioning and pleading innocent must have been to gain her trust. She set her mouth in a grim line. The next time they met, she would show him no mercy. She appreciated the intent of someone trying to kill her, if they were operating off information based on twelve years ago, but she was not going to let them succeed. A quick look around confirmed where she was.

This seemed to be the mental health clinic she had been heading to before the world had _changed_. It had been transformed like the rest of the office building, overtaken by the disease of rust and decay that afflicted this entire building. She went into the next door office, doing anything to avoid going back out there again for the time being. 

Inside was what appeared to be a small office as decayed as the outside walls. A large desk and bookshelf took up half the space ahead directly ahead of her. Suddenly, Alessa realized too late that she was not alone in the room. The old leather chair behind the desk wheeled around to face her, revealing a thin man that seemed oddly familiar to her. Brown-haired with a week’s worth of stubble on his face, he was roguish but handsome looking. His clothes were a little unkempt, but the brown vest and slacks lent an air of sophistication to his appearance. Alessa noted the top buttons of his shirt were open, showing the barest hints of the smooth chest underneath. Alessa instinctively pointed her gun at him, but the man barely showed any reaction aside from clutching the arms of the chair more tightly. 

“Oh. You’ve finally arrived,” the well dressed man remarked smoothly, getting up from the desk. “I’ve been waiting to meet you, Alessa,” he said.

Alessa drew back in shock. This man knew her name? “You’ve been expecting me?” 

“Of course,” the man cocked his head, in a disbelieving way.

_Okay…_ “But…who are you?” She was still confused.

The man offered her a cocky smirk. “The name’s Vincent. Don’t forget it, okay? I know you’ve been through a great ordeal so far, but you don’t have to worry. I’m on your side,” he reassured her. 

“Really?” Alessa asked skeptically.

“Sure. I can help you…if you will let me,” Vincent smirked at her. 

Alessa stared at him in sarcastic skepticism. “Really? Is it the same kind of help Claudia wants to give me?” she asked dryly. She raised her eyebrows.

The comment seemed to touch a nerve in Vincent. He threw up his hands in disgust. “Please don’t lump me together with that madwoman. She was totally brainwashed by that crazy old hag.” He paused, looking a little sheepishly at Alessa as he recalled whom he was talking to. “Well, maybe crazy old hag is a bit harsh. She was your real mother, after all,” he sneered casually, smirking at the raven haired woman.

Something snapped inside Alessa, and before she knew it, she was responding back with a torrent of blazing anger. “That monster was _not_ my mother! She gave up any right she had to that title when she tortured me in that horrible sick way,” Alessa growled, holding the gun subconsciously at Vincent. He drew back in sudden shock, holding his hands in a disarming pose. 

“Hold on a minute. I was just pointing it out,” Vincent pleaded, not wanting the woman to get the wrong idea and overreact. If Alessa killed him now, then his whole entire plan would be for naught. He hadn’t expected such fierce anger, even after 13 years. Dahlia must have really done a number on her psyche. And he had to admit: it was a bit frightening. 

“Yeah, well, I suggest you _not point it out_ ever again,” Alessa warned. She stared unsettlingly at his casually sophisticated form, evaluating whether he would pull another joke again, and tempt her directive by mentioning Dahlia. Finally she lowered the gun, deciding it wasn’t worth it. 

“Okay,” Vincent said, still holding his hands up in a disarming gesture. When he realized she wasn’t going to shoot him, he sat carefully back behind the desk. 

Alessa decided a change of topic was in order. “You said you want to help me. How? Do you even know what’s going on?” she inquired.

“Of course. I know everything,” Vincent said mysteriously. Alessa rolled her eyes at the confident tone, but he continued unfazed. “I know all about your…less-than-perfect past. And I know that unless you do something soon, you’re about to repeat that hell.”

“What are you talking about?”

Vincent looked surprise. “Don’t you know? Haven’t you figured it out yet?”

Alessa’s eyes narrowed. “If I had, would I really be asking you now?”

“Hey, there’s no need to get upset. I’m merely surprised, that’s all,” Vincent placated her. “But if you really don’t know…”

“What is it? Tell me what’s going on.”

Vincent sighed, but he looked rather satisfied at knowing something she didn’t. Too satisfied, in fact. For just as it seemed like she would get her answer, Alessa saw a shadow cross his face. His lips curved into a smirk as his eyes took on a hint of maliciousness she didn’t like at all. 

“No, I think not.”

“What?” Alessa exclaimed. 

“I don’t think I’ll tell you anything. Not yet,” Vincent reiterated.

“Why?”

“Because it’s not important yet,” Vincent shrugged, smiling a bit at the woman. “Why don’t you enjoy yourself a bit longer instead?” he suggested, smirking in that unusual, unsettling way of his. He was enjoying her confusion, if he was to be honest with himself.

“Enjoy myself?” Alessa repeated. “Are you out of your fucking mind? Don’t you realize what the hell is going on out there!? We are caught in some alternate dimension or plane of existence between who knows what, and we have no way out! There are monsters out there intent on eating anything they come across, I’ve had to fight them all the way through my trip here, getting beaten and bloodied, and you’re telling me to _enjoy myself_!?” Alessa screamed, losing her temper beyond her control. She couldn’t help it, this man was pushing all her buttons in one night and if she weren’t so reluctant to take a human life, she was certain she would have killed him by now. He was lucky she was so morally responsible, thanks to her parents’ upbringing, or else he would have been dead. 

“Oh, I understand perfectly what is going on out there,” Vincent responded calmly, pushing his glasses up with his fingers. He leaned back in his chair, seemingly unfazed by her outburst.

“Then why? Doesn’t this place get to you at all?” she asked. This guy was both starting to frustrate her and seriously give her the creeps. But even she didn’t expect the next statement that came out of his mouth. 

“Oh, it gets to me alright. I find it most…fascinating,” Vincent said, glancing around at the rusted walls and furniture, reeking of mildew and decay. 

Alessa stared at him. She simply stared at him. 

“Oh my god. You’re insane,” Alessa realized. “You’re fucking insane, and I’m standing here talking to you,” she said dazedly. It was clear to her now. Whoever this man was, he was just as out of it as Claudia, if not more so. 

Vincent cocked an eyebrow. “Insane? Oh no. Quite the contrary, my dear; I assure you I am very sane. However, I am what some people would call an ‘unconventional’ thinker.” He stared at Alessa with morbid amusement. “But even if I _was_ insane, isn’t insanity just a different point of view?”

Alessa had no answer to that. Suddenly she didn’t care whether he told her what he knew or not. Her own instincts told her that she really didn’t want to be in the same room with this man. He was dangerous; she could see it in his eyes. She started to back away towards the exit. It didn’t escape Vincent’s notice.

“Where are you going?” Alessa didn’t say anything. “Aw, did I scare you?” 

“No,” Alessa shook her head. “But if you’re not going to help me, I really have no reason to stay here, do I?” she stated, trying to sound irritated. The truth was that Vincent was starting to intimidate her. But she couldn’t let him see that. She knew full well how effective a weapon fear could be in the hands of someone dangerous enough. Someone like him. 

“Actually, I can think of a few,” Vincent remarked. An unsettling glint came into his eyes that send a chill down Alessa’s spine. She rushed to the door, eager to leave the office as quickly as possible, but Vincent was faster. He shielded the exit with his body, grinning wolfishly at her now. 

“What are you doing?”

“Are you so eager to leave? Why don’t you stay a while? Like I said, there is some enjoyment to be found here,” the unsettling man remarked playfully. Yet Alessa didn’t miss the hint of dark intention in his tone. She glanced at the door she had come through, gauging how long it would take to escape into the outside area scattered with chasms and monsters that although frightening, would be very convenient at the moment.

“Don’t think I can’t get there just as fast,” Vincent broke into her thoughts. But before he even took a step, Alessa pointed the barrel of her shotgun at his chest.

“Stay away from me,” she ordered. “I don’t know what game you’re playing, but whoever you are, I want no part of it.”

Vincent immediately held up his hands in protest. “Whoa, hold on there. You aren’t seriously going to shoot me, are you? I’m not even armed!” 

Alessa sighed. No, she didn’t want to waste precious bullets on a human nuisance with all the demons out there. She certainly didn’t want to kill an unarmed man either. However, she would do it if left with no other choice. 

“I will if I have to,” she warned him. 

“Fine. I apologize for that. I was just having some fun,” Vincent explained. He gestured at the grotesque scenery surrounding them. “You can’t tell me you expect me to act normally under these circumstances.”

Alessa lowered her weapon a little, seeing his point. Vincent approached her cautiously, keeping his palms up. 

“Look at this place, Alessa. I may find it fascinating, but only because it’s the stuff of nightmares. A living nightmare – that’s what this is. Inhuman beasts, bottomless pits, walls painted in flesh and blood; Dante and Geiger would have a field day with this little slice of Hell,” he commented philosophically. “Normalcy is nearly as dead as those corpses hanging outside. If I am to retain my sanity from the clutches of this place, I need something positive to focus on. Something real and meaningful. Something like you.”

“Huh?”

“You’re beautiful, you know. I used to yearn for nice things when I was younger. Lovely girls, respect from others, worth as a human being. But I was always too shy to get any of them. I was afraid to approach women with my intentions, and they always ignored me. I couldn’t demand the respect I deserved from others, and I got treated badly because of it. How I wish I’d have had the strength to state what I wanted when I was young, rather than just react to what was going on around me,” he said contemplatively, and Alessa could almost feel the sadness – or regret – as he looked down from the area, seemingly lost in his moment of contemplation. The demeanor had turned earnestly serious suddenly.

Alessa lowered the gun entirely, wondering if perhaps she had been too quick to judge earlier. But then the pensive mood disappeared, replaced by the arrogant, threatening demeanor she had encountered earlier.

“But alas, things always change, don’t they? And I’ve learned a very valuable lesson since then: merely yearning for something does very little good. You have to reach out and take it. Don’t you agree?”

Alessa shuddered. That was sensible enough advice, yet her sixth sense detected the casual ruthlessness hidden behind his tone. Something told her this man had done more than his fair share of taking anything he wanted, regardless of the consequences. And she really didn’t like the way he was staring at her now.

Vincent glanced intensely into her eyes, letting her see the depth of his desire. 

“And right now, I know exactly what I want.”

Vincent stepped closer to Alessa, letting his eyes trail over her body. The tight clothes she wore only defined the womanly curves she possessed. She wasn’t as stunning as some of the women he had experienced in Silent Hill; her breasts weren’t the largest, and her legs weren’t quite as statuesque. That didn’t matter in the least. She was still beautiful, and her sharp stubbornness more than made up for any shortcomings of the physical. She was fiery, unlike some of the ones he had conquered. He liked it when they had spirit. 

It made things so much more enjoyable when they finally submitted.

“Wh-What are you doing?” Alessa asked uneasily, shifting beneath his heated gaze. There was something there that she didn’t like at all.

“Taking what I want,” Vincent replied, as he looked down at her.

And then he pressed his lips against hers, as he pressed his body close against hers. He grabbed her in a tight, firm grip that made her gasp in astonishment. His hands were on her breasts, touching her all over as they worked their way down to the sides of her ass. Alessa was frozen in stunned disbelief, unable to do anything to respond. He groped her thoroughly through her clothing, frantically touching every part of her as if in a daze. He held her arm at her side, so that she would be unable to aim her shotgun at him. His lips were smothering her mouth, with his tongue intruding its way into her personal space, urging her to respond. His hands went up to her breasts again, as his arms pinned hers against the wall. And suddenly, Alessa woke up. She couldn’t shoot him, but she knew there was something she could do to get herself out of this.

She slammed her knee hard into his crotch, making him double over in pain. As he grunted in agony while holding his body, Alessa brought down the form of the shotgun across his back, bringing him to his knees, and then she swung it hard across his side, driving him to the ground. As Vincent lay holding his stomach on the ground, Alessa grabbed his legs and stomped on his crotch. She stomped on his crotch repeatedly in a rage inspired by the events of the past few minutes, until Vincent was crying out in pain. Finally, when it seemed she wouldn’t stop, Alessa slammed his legs away, and finally let him shift onto his side in an agonized position. Alessa grabbed her shotgun and she was tempted to just shoot him right here, but she decided against it. She was not going to murder someone who was unarmed, even if he was a creep who had just tried to rape her, and she was not going to waste a bullet that might be needed out there for a monster on someone who was obviously just a piece of trash, unworthy of her attention. She hurried towards the door, still aiming her shotgun right at him.

“Stay the fuck away from me! Or next time, I’m gonna blow both of your balls off! You hear me? I don’t know what the hell kinda thing you’re trying to pull here, I don’t have time for this. Just stay the fuck away from me,” Alessa screamed at him, moving her shotgun warningly.

Vincent was still crying in agony on the ground, thus he was unable to respond. She didn’t wait for a response, knowing what was best for her. Alessa slammed the door behind her, as she exited the room.

Vincent groaned in pain, carefully pushing himself up into a sitting position. Shit, it still hurt with more pain than he had ever thought possible. He hadn’t been expecting that at all. He had been expecting her to be an easy pushover, and instead the opposite had happened. She had almost killed him, and the rage in her eyes was frightening to behold. He had pushed her too hard, too fast, and paid the consequences for it. Such rough language for the Mother of God, too. Such coarse, unrefined words; like a common street walker. Being away from the Order had cheapened her in some ways. But, it had made her immeasurably strong in others. He had always wondered about the Mother of God, with Claudia speaking so frequently about her. He had heard about her strength, and her deeds, through the eyes of a twisted brainwashed believer. And now that he saw her, for the first time, he knew that he had to have her. She was going to be a challenge. He couldn’t just whisper a couple of words into her ear, and oh-so-skillfully twist her to his will. But, everyone had a breaking point. He would break her down slowly, challenging her defenses at every turn when they met, and when she was at her most vulnerable point in this play, he would move in for the kill. He smiled as he leaned on his elbow, relaxing a little despite the soreness. Yes, it would be glorious, his most powerful triumph to date. He would play his true role in this sordid little situation, and there would be nothing Claudia could do about it. The invigorating thought was almost enough to give him strength to rise to a proper standing position, though he remained on the floor for safety’s sake for now. No need to injure himself and ruin the experience for his prized pet, soon to be all his and no one else’s.

He looked forward to breaking her.


	13. Into the Nightmare

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Disclaimer: Silent Hill belongs to Konami.**

**Chapter 11: Into the Nightmare**

**Alternate Hilltop Center - Part 2**

 

Alessa slammed the door shut behind her, breathing a huge sigh of relief. She was glad to be out of there, away from that sicko. She waited until she was sure he wasn’t going to be following her, before relaxing her hands’ fairly tight grip on her weapons. What a creep. She felt her skin crawl in absolute disgust at what his thoughts were towards her. She was shaking from the encounter, unable to control her hands as the reality of the situation hit her. She had almost gotten raped. She had thought she had almost become numb to the horrors this Otherworld could offer her, but the thought that she had almost gotten raped in this small office, just like that, completely out of the blue, was more horrifying than almost anything else she had encountered thus far. What other things was this world capable of, if it could throw this at her without any warning whatsoever? She hadn’t even seen it coming, and that was what made it so scary. If she hadn’t had her weapons, any of them…she was horrified to think of what might have happened. Vincent was an asshole, but it was the unpredictable nature of this world that really had her concerned. She tried to put him out of her mind. She wouldn’t go back into that room again, and if he did come after her she would shoot him. End of story.

The room she found herself in now was an office of some sort, with shelves and a desk located around the space of the room. There wasn’t much of interest on most of the shelves, only knickknacks of various sorts scattered around on the shelving. Lamps, pens, mugs; common items that were nothing of any use to Alessa. There were two first aid kits and one health drink in one of the cabinets. Even though the health drinks seemed to be able to cure almost any injury, she took them anyway. They might come in handy. Suddenly, she noticed there was a thick textbook on the center of the desk, and it was open to about the halfway point. Taking a good close look, she realized that it was a junior high school biology textbook. That was when she realized that there was a passage that was outlined on the page in a circle, in a deep purple marker. She started to read from it, her eyes skimming down all the lines of text on the page. _“When you pour diluted hydrogen peroxide onto manganese dioxide, oxygen is produced. Although oxygen will not burn on its own, it will help other things to burn.”_ It was then that Alessa noticed that there was a bottle on the desk next to the book, darkly toned with some type of liquid inside it. Alessa picked up the bottle, and noted that it was something labeled Oxydol on the front. She looked back at the medical cabinet, taking in the fact that this was the only substance of any importance that was available here.

_Yeah, real subtle, guys_ , Alessa smirked sarcastically. It was obvious the Oxydol was going to be useful later on in this place. And whoever reigned here wasn’t good at doing subtle. They may as well have left a map for her detailing where to go and what path to take, and exactly what to do about everything in what order. Not that she didn’t appreciate the orderly, linear guidance she was being given.

Alessa cautiously exited the lobby room. She knew they were still out there. The creatures that had resonated through the hallway, whatever they were – she could hear them as they scrambled through the area. Whether they were one or two or ten, Alessa didn’t know. But she was in for a rough time when she tried to get past them. She felt fear overwhelming her little by little. She didn’t want to go out here, but she wasn’t going to let it overcome her. She stopped it in its tracks and took the next step forward.

The noises grew closer and close in proximity, step by step, as the creature closed the distance between them. Alessa readied her shotgun, waiting for the creature to reveal itself. It was hunting her – she could tell, scrambling about in the darkness trying to sense its prey. The cacophony grew in power as the creature approached, filling the area with that horrible sound. Finally, the creature revealed itself. A rapidly crawling figure emerged out of the darkness, rushing toward her position. Alessa tried to hit it, but the creature moved faster than expected. Alessa screamed as it tried to knock her down, and sent her sprawling to the ground. The sudden burst of power had allowed it to succeed, and had caught her completely off guard. The creature was shaking uncontrollably, as if it was wracked with spasms of some unending excruciating muscle pain. Alessa screamed as the creature apparently tried to climb on top of her. There was a cylinder covering its face like some type of mask, preventing Alessa from looking into its face. Not that she wanted to, but the presentation was made even more disturbing because of it. Alessa had to struggle to keep its misshapen limbs away from her, the shaking of the creature’s body making it extremely difficult. Summoning her strength with her legs, she was able to throw the creature away from her. She rapidly rose to her feet, quickly getting her bearings.

Backing away, she got a good look at the creature. The grotesque creature was skittering around on the ground, trying to encircle her apparently to gain an advantage. This close in, she had a great view of it. The creature had a human-like shape, with some type of garment covering its lower regions and large sandbag-like appendages for arms. How it possibly worked, Alessa had no way of knowing, but it was obvious it was incredibly adept at hunting down prey. Despite being human shaped, it seemed slightly smaller than the average grown person. But its speed made up for that. Alessa knew she had the overhead advantage, with it being low to the ground, but she had to move fast. She struck the creature with the sword, cutting a slash deep into its back, but the creature didn’t seem receptive to pain. It continued skittering and trying to capture her in its grip, even as the blade was buried deep in its back. Alessa yanked it out for another stab. She backed away some more, to avoid the swipes of the being. She didn’t want to waste her shotgun shells on something small, but she knew if she needed the help, it was probably best to use them. She fired once at the monster, making it cry out in pain. The monster slowed down, temporarily knocked down to the ground in a stunned position.

Alessa stabbed it again with her sword, burying it deep into its back. The monster howled in pain, thrashing around in agony on the ground. Alessa stabbed it again, until the creature finally fell dead, spilling its lifeblood onto the floor. Alessa breathed a sigh of relief, backing away from the corpse. That was a close one. That creature was a challenge, more so than many of the other monsters she had encountered thus far. It moved quickly, and it seemed it was able to detect her position through the darkness. She didn’t want to think about what would have happened if it had climbed on top of her, and sunk its hooks into her. She would have to be careful.

She was so relieved about the creature no longer being a threat that she missed the other coming out of the shadows, and the shock jolted her out of her complacency in a hurry. The dog came out of the darkness with its jaws ready to thrash, causing Alessa to roll out of the way to avoid its dangerous bite. Alessa pushed herself up from the ground, picking up her shotgun and aiming it as the dog turned around to do another sweep at her. She fired two shots at the dog, putting the animal out of its misery, as she got up from the ground. Alessa wiped the sweat off her brow with her forearm, shakily breathing a deep breath in and out to calm herself. She was getting tired; her muscles weren’t responding as quickly. She was going to be in trouble soon, if she kept this up for much longer. She needed to find a way out of here, and soon, before she got overwhelmed by the dangers in this place.

She explored the hallway further. There were two bathrooms nearby. She didn’t need to go to the bathroom, so there was no point in exploring them further. Besides, they were locked. There was no way to know what was in there. This place had the habit of leaving her ammo in the oddest places, but she would have to find some elsewhere. She went up to the elevator. There was no way to know what was on each floor, so she just pressed the button to the top floor.

Alessa jumped as a rusted gate slammed down over the doors as the elevator went up. Damn place. Why did she feel like she was going down into Hell itself? (Or was it the upper level of Hell?) The elevator doors opened up into another darkened corridor. She stepped out, wondering what was next.

Alessa looked around, analyzing every inch of the new area. There was a billboard nearby. It didn’t seem to have any important information, though Alessa noted a few names. _Michael F., Lisa R., Willard L., Leonard R., Sam B., John K._ Curious. There was something about those two names before the last that touched off something in her, but she didn’t know what. Oh well. There was another of those hanging bodies, too. Alessa knew there was something about them that was significant, but for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out what. It was disturbing, though; to look at it like this for an extended period of time. The melted face, the baby hanging off its left hand…it sparked something that was familiar to Alessa, but she didn’t want to know what it was. It was just too disturbing.

There were only two doors to go through, and one was locked, so she took the left. Alessa looked around, once again analyzing every inch of the darkness she found herself in now. The walls were some kind of wood, reminding Alessa of something from long ago that she longed to forget. The walls and floor looked bloody, like it had dried into the cracks long ago. There were blotches of blood on the wall boards, reminding Alessa of a horror movie. It looked like a dungeon from somewhere that had gone neglected, or a basement…that was it. She stopped there. Too much memory. The air was stale, like nobody had attended to it in years. Suddenly, she detected a familiar sound, like the crumbling of paper, making its way around in the darkness.

_Oh no_ , Alessa thought, getting disheartened. They were back, and it sounded like there was more than one of them. Alessa readied her shotgun. Wipe out the enemy first, then explore. There were too many potentially useful things lying around here to just run. She saw the creature coming around the corner and she was about to fire, when she felt a hesitation.

She decided to stay still for a few moments, for some reason. And to her surprise, the creature bypassed her entirely. _He can’t see me_ , Alessa realized.

This was a powerful advantage, and she realized it instantly. The creatures must have been hunting through sound, and that was the way her footsteps gave away her position. As long as she kept quiet and still, they couldn’t find her. A smirk slowly spread across Alessa’s face. She knew what to do.

She lured the creature with some steps, waiting for the movement. As expected it responded to her. She lifted herself using the bars on the ceiling, just in case it decided to charge her feet again. It didn’t, so she lowered herself down, barely touching the ground as she settled gently onto her boots. The creature ambled curiously toward the noise, stopping to see where it had heard it from. Alessa fired on the creature, downing it with one shot.

She sidestepped the spot where she had been, shifting to another position. The creature got up again; it was apparently only stunned. It rushed to where the sound of the shot came from, completely bypassing Alessa as expected. Alessa shot it again, downing it once more. And then she remembered the silencer for her handgun. Popping it onto her gun, she aimed her sights at the reddish figure on the ground. The creature got up again, struggling to regain its bearings. Alessa shot it once with her handgun, putting the creature out of its misery. She breathed a sigh of relief, wiping her brow of the sweat that had accumulated there. There. That was pretty easy.

Using that same method, she took down the other two monsters in the hallway. For the first time since this all began, Alessa smiled with hope. Maybe things weren’t getting worse, after all. Maybe she could overcome this and come out through it all alive.

Now that the threat was eliminated, Alessa decided to explore the rooms in the area. There were only two doors that were available to be opened, so she took them one by one. Once again, she couldn’t help but wonder why so many locks were broken in this world. After all, if the rooms behind them were the same as in the real world, then it should be all right, presumably. Did they want her to stay on course, or was it that the world just couldn’t replicate everything that was in the real world?

Alessa looked around at the room she found herself in. There was a large table in the center, with a few chairs surrounding it over the chain-link floor, and a partition of chain-link in the back that allowed her to see into the darkness beyond. There were cigarettes on the table on an ashtray, and there was a book of matches as well. Ugh. Alessa frowned in revulsion at the smell of cigarette smoke. She had always hated it when people smoked. It stemmed from her childhood, when being burned and being exposed to smoke gave her a lifelong aversion to it. Heather had smoked and she had always had a problem with it, even though it was long before she met Alessa. They had even had a fight about it, which resulted in the former not speaking to her for a few days, and vice versa. She was a little harsh, because she was judging Heather for things she had done in the past. And ultimately, she was forced to apologize for it. Harry didn’t have a problem with it, because she had quit. But the thought that Heather had willingly put that smoke into her body, it…definitely made Alessa question her girlfriend’s intelligence. Peer pressure or not, only a stupid idiot would get into something that could kill you, knowing how dangerous it was. But then, people had different ways of dealing with peer pressure, and she supposed Heather just hadn’t been strong enough to stand up to it. She had been looking for acceptance, for closeness, and smoking was just a way to get it, from kids who otherwise wouldn’t have looked twice at her. It burned her, to know that had taken place, but she had no control over it and she had to let it go for her own sake. Still, Alessa told Heather that if she ever lit up while she was around, they were breaking up instantly. Of course, Heather wasn’t her girlfriend at the time that took place, but their friendship would have been breaking apart, instantly. For the matter of her own health and her sanity, Alessa couldn’t be friends with someone who smoked. She picked up the book of matches. Maybe it would come in handy.

She left the empty room. There was nothing else there, and the last thing she wanted was to smell like cigarette smoke for the remainder of her time here.

 

~

 

Alessa looked at the hallway she found herself in. There was an amber colored partition of some sort blocking off a part of the hallway, sectioning it away from the rest of the place. It was transparent, and was apparently made of a glass of some sort, allowing her to see into the hallway beyond. There was a wheeled chair several feet ahead of the glass, lying immobile among the shadows at the entrance to another room. Despite the overwhelming darkness, it was bathed in light, which seemed to be emanating from somewhere in the vicinity. Alessa wondered what the meaning of it was. There seemed to be some meaning to it, but she couldn’t figure out what it was. Alessa felt a little strange as she stared at the other side of the window. Her gaze was fixated on the chair, and for some reason, she couldn’t look away from it. There was something like a howl, emanating from somewhere in the background as she stared at this transfixing image. There was something in there, on the other side. It was calling her. She stared transfixed at the dark passageway beyond, unable to turn away. The more she stared at it, the more she felt like she was being sucked in. It was an eerie, disorientating feeling. The world around her seemed to fade or take on an air of non-existence, as only the tableau of yellow glass existed. She felt herself being drawn in, as the world rushed by around her, closer and closer, until she finally realized what she was doing and made a great effort to finally pull back.

Alessa pulled back from the frozen moment in time, rushing to catch her breath. What just happened there? It was like she was in a trance, unable to do anything except look at the scene before her. She didn’t know what was behind that wall, or why it was calling her, but she knew it was probably best to look away. She knew, somehow, that if she continued to stare into that void and got fully enthralled into whatever was waiting there, she would never come back. She couldn’t break the glass, try as she might; it wasn’t an issue of wanting to confront whatever was in there, it was a simple matter of curiosity. Still, it didn’t work. The wall that was placed here was obviously no ordinary structure made of glass, and she was starting to wonder if it was even glass or if it was some substance that was unknown to her or anyone. Some things were just better to just walk away from, though the questions remained. What was on the other side that needed such protection, or was it intended to keep her out? And why did it seem so familiar to her, almost like she had met it before or experienced it? Something was there in that other side of this world, and the more she thought about the unbreakable wall and what had almost taken place here, the more unsettled she became.

Alessa walked away from the confounding thing. She didn’t want to know. Sometimes it was just better not to ask.

 

~

 

The art gallery lay transformed before her, turned into a shabby and decayed version of its former self. Alessa surveyed the new environment. That creepy naked painting of her was gone, thankfully, and so were all of the others in the area, their frames laying empty. There was only one left, and it was the worst one. There was a picture with a white-clad woman in the center, large and imposing in its frame, with followers surrounding the woman in the painting, and there was a being of white light behind her. Alessa approached the painting, as she read the caption below it. _“Flame Purifies All. By those remains may a believer find the road to Paradise.”_ Alessa shivered. She had been terrified of fire ever since she was a kid. Flames licking at her skin…the heat of an inferno enveloping her – the grotesque imagery it conjured up was horrifying, and it made her feel nauseous and repulsed all over. And she reeled back in shock as the full meaning of the painting hit her. She was struck with horror at the mention of Paradise in the painting! She should have recognized it before. And indeed, there were flames surrounding the woman in the painting, as followers knelt before her and worshipped her as a goddess. The image was grotesque and horrifying, and she couldn’t believe it could appear so casually in a painting like this. That wasn’t the worst part, though. A closer examination of the woman in the painting confirmed what she suspected. The face was miniature compared to the rest of the painting, but the features were incredibly familiar.

She was starting to wish they had kept the other painting, she thought to herself. The attempt at humor was poor, and she couldn’t help but feel disoriented as the horror overwhelmed her.

_No!_ She was not going down that road again! That place led to misery and death…if she pondered her life too closely again, it led to feelings she wasn’t prepared to deal with right now. For the sake of her well being in this place, she needed to keep her mind focused.

That horror slowly turned to outrage. How dare they! The presences in this place knew how devastating her past was to her, and yet they still felt compelled to drag it up in front of her! She wanted to lash out at the forces behind this place, but unfortunately there was no one to lash out at; nothing save the empty silence of the Otherworld in its lingering stillness.

She had to calm down. She took a deep breath to calm herself, and let go of the anger that was flowing through her. For now.

She was obviously expected to burn the painting. The problem was there were no available materials to burn. Then she remembered the Oxydol! That would provide a source of oxygen to make something flammable, but there was still the matter of an actual material. She thought about tossing the remaining ottoman and burning it, but that would probably just create an out of control fire that would kill her, or bar entry into the room again. She needed something small, something that wouldn’t create a blazing flame.

It looked like she would have to explore the rest of this place in the hope of finding something. Sigh. They just couldn’t make it easier for her, could they?

 

~

 

She went through the hallways of the building, hunting for some object she could burn to move forward. She moved through them quickly, just in case some monsters were tempted to appear, not looking at the window as she passed by it. That window still creeped her out, so she just wasn’t going to look at it. It was a frustrating search. Despite appearing hellish, there was actually nothing of substance to burn in this nightmarish place.

She tried to test the billboard she had seen to see if it would burn, but when she used one of her matches, it was obvious the thing would never produce a big enough fire to burn the painting.

She somehow ended up on the first floor, where she found the answer to her problem. To her surprised bemusement, it turned out to be a piece of steak. That wasn’t the only thing she found, though. There was something else on that floor, something that was much more concerning than a piece of meat in a hellish office building.

Alessa roamed down the hall looking for any room that might be accessible to her, when she heard some noise that sounded bothersome. Rounding the corner, Alessa saw something shifting in the distance. She peered through the darkness, inching ever closer towards the source of the noise. And then she saw it. There was a monster there in the corridor, lurking at the end of the hallway. Alessa stopped, unwilling to go any further. It looked like two giant pillars of flesh, entangled in a frame laid out over the expanse of the corridor, with some type of circle twitching spasmodically in the center. Alessa drew back in shock. She had seen some strange things on this journey, but none of them were quite as horrifying as this. Alessa aimed her shotgun straight at the beast, ready to shoot. This thing was huge! If it chose to charge her, she would be forced to hightail it back to the elevator and hope the doors could stop themselves from being forced open. She was panicking now, ready to run for her life if it was necessary. But them she realized the creature wasn’t approaching towards her. In fact, it wasn’t moving at all. What the hell? She took a closer look at the thing and realized the reason for its lack of movement. It was bonded to the wall.

Alessa was confused more than she had been at any other point throughout this. What the hell was this thing? That was when she noticed that there was a series of papers sprawled out on the ground at the foot of the monster, a few feet away. Alessa timidly tiptoed towards the foul nightmarish creature, never letting her careful grip fall from her shotgun too much. The worst part was the noise the creature made as it stood there. It sounded horrible; there was a hissing sound that sounded deep and disturbing, like a snake, or some monstrous predator hissing at its prey, and Alessa felt herself shake all over in fear, despite not wanting to. She kept her distance, even though the creature was immobile. She knew, somehow, that if she tried to approach it, the creature would try to eat her. She just knew it. There was no how or why. It just wasn’t a question. She could almost imagine the tentacles coming towards her, dragging her body towards the monster so that it would eat her slowly, painfully. They were probably stored in those two fleshy columns that surrounded the monster, side by side alongside the wall. Reaching down to pick up the papers, she realized that they were part of a story of some kind. She read through the lines, keeping one hand on her gun at all times.

_Once upon a time, there was_   
_a monster living at the gates_   
_of a village._   
_It was a very scary and_   
_a very bad monster._   
_It would catch people and_   
_crunch them up with its big teeth._

_The villagers were afraid of the_   
_monster, and no one would dare_   
_approach the gates._   
_Everyone was stuck inside_   
_the village._

_When the king heard about this,_   
_he summoned his knights._   
_The knights eagerly rode out_   
_to defeat the monster._

_“Ha! Take that!”_   
_Their swords slashed and their_   
_spears flashed, but the monster_   
_wouldn't die._   
_The monster tossed the knights_   
_into his mouth one by one,_   
_horses and all._

_What was the king to do?_   
_He fretted and fussed and paced the_   
_floor, but could think of no solution._

_Soon after, the village priestess came_   
_to the castle. She was a very kind_   
_and good person. The king asked_   
_her to defeat the monster guarding_   
_the gates._

Alessa stood back. So they were a fairy tale. Something about this latest discovery bothered her, though. She thought the fairy tale sounded familiar, but she couldn’t remember from where. The pages looked like they were written by a child, with drawn illustrations to match. Where had they come from? Most importantly, she couldn’t remember how it ended. She searched for more of the fairy tale among the pages, any other scribbling from the same author, but there were none. Bah! Hadn’t she read through to the end?! The monster was obviously a stand-in for the creature in the story, and the tale was obviously a message to tell her that she couldn’t defeat it by normal means. She had to find the other pages of the story in order to figure out how to get rid of it.

Alessa pulled out her map. To her surprise, it turned out that she was near to the exit of the building, and this monster was standing in her way. Great. She had finally found the exit to this place, and now this monster was blocking her path! She was tempted to shoot it, but recalling the monster in the story, it probably wouldn’t do any good, and it might even make it angry enough to come after her, tentacles or not. She had to be calm about it, and find another way to defeat this monster without brute force, by figuring out how the priestess did it in the fairy tale.

She finally located a room she could enter. There was a large counter wrapping around the room, made of oak of some kind. This was obviously a bar or food service area of some kind. There was something that was definitely unexpected, though. There was a large amount of cash spread all over the counter, like someone had robbed the register and smashed it open. Alessa was tempted, but decided not to take it. She already had all the money she needed.

Besides, this place reflected sins, or at least some parts of it did in certain areas, some of the time. If she committed a major one, like stealing the money when she didn’t require it, it might unleash something absolutely monstrous in response. And then she would really be in trouble.

She spotted something in the back. Going closer, she realized it was one of those creatures, the kind she hadn’t seen since the regular office building. The huge, lumpy shape of flesh and mass laid leaned back against a table, just as revolting and hideous as Alessa remembered. And the smell was horrific. Ugh. Alessa didn’t really want to confront this thing, but she needed to explore the room further and she didn’t really feel comfortable doing so with that…thing nearby. She would have to take it down. Alessa tiptoed towards the creature, carefully watching her every step. The creature was lying with its ‘head’ staring down at the ground. It seemed not to notice her approach. She tried not to make a sound as she took one step after another. The creature seemed not to be aware of her presence. Alessa gripped her shotgun tightly. She would have to make this quick. She pressed the shotgun against the massive flesh, immediately jarring the creature. She was almost methodical as she fired the shotgun at the creature causing it to stand from the floor, and fired again with a thunderous shot, driving it to the ground. She drove her sword into its skull brutally, not pulling back until the creature stopped moving. Alessa grimaced in disgust. That was as close to a murder as she had carried out on this trip. She felt sick to her stomach, and she held her hand over her mouth while holding her stomach to keep herself from throwing up. She shouldn’t feel bad about this; really, she shouldn’t. But beating them down like this, without them being predators coming after her, while they were sitting helpless and didn’t have a chance to defend themselves, wasn’t a pleasant experience at all. She didn’t want to do this again.

She went back to her search. It was then that Alessa noticed that there was a light coming from an open fridge. Alessa approached the appliance and drew back in shock at what was inside. There was a steak sitting in the fridge, but it was rotten to the core and sitting among what appeared to be a sea of blood. Was this the answer to her questions? It looked like someone had bled to death in the refrigerator, or something had exploded in a mass of blood, or blood had seeped out of the bag the steak was in. Surely they couldn’t expect her to burn something like this! Ugh. The stench was horrible. She didn’t like the smell of spoiled meat at home, and she couldn’t stand it here. She held her hand over her mouth and nose, trying to hold back the roiling sensation in her stomach. She took step by forced step, willing herself to go closer to the fridge. She picked up the steak in the plastic bag, holding it between her thumb and index finger away from her. She had to burn this thing before it got worse. She would have to cleanse her hands thoroughly as soon as she got a chance. There was probably salmonella, and bacteria, and god knows what else on this bag. She wished there was another option, something else to burn that didn’t look as hideous. But no, knowing this place, this was probably the only thing she was going to find. Picking up a box of shotgun shells from a nearby table, she went to leave the room, past the dirty glasses on the counter, and the monster that reminded her too much of a defenseless animal struck down in cold blood. In fact, she couldn’t get out of here fast enough. She vacated the area as soon as possible.

This room could keep its cash.

 

~

 

She made it back to the fifth floor, passing by the window again, down the hall into the art gallery. There was a bucket under the painting, apparently waiting in anticipation of her burning something in it. How convenient. She tossed the meat into it, doused it with some Oxydol, and took out her book of matches. Here goes, she thought. She threw the match in. A slow flame began to roil inside the bucket, and Alessa took a step back as the flame expanded. As expected, the flame consumed the painting. The painting disintegrated from the charring effect, until there was nothing left of the frame. Surprisingly, it turned out there was a door behind the painting. The two twin doors sat on the middle of the wall in the form of pull-away doors, like a vent leading to some other part of the building. Alessa knew she needed to check it out.

Before that, though, she pulled out a health drink and doused it all over her hands. She couldn’t stand all those microbes from the meat being on her hands. She hated to waste a health drink, but this was something she needed to do for her sanity and for her overall health, after she got out of this.

Alessa groaned inwardly. She couldn’t crawl well in these jeans, but she needed to get up there and go through the passageway to see what was on the other side behind this doorway. She pushed herself up into the passageway and crawled to whatever was waiting on the other side.

 

~

 

Alessa jumped out of the small crevice in the wall. She immediately raised her shotgun, as she thought that a monster had found her. But it was just a picture. She sighed in relief. That relief immediately turned to being disturbed as she saw the body next to the picture. Oh. There was another hanging body, no surprise there. This one was a little different, though. It was hanging by a cord wrapped around its neck, entangled in the pipes of the construct. It seemed to have been burned all over, but the hanging cord seemed to be the main cause of death. Alessa felt sorry for them, since it looked like it had been an excruciatingly painful death, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. And there was something squiggling all over the body, like some kind of blood flowing all over the body. That same thing was also on the bars and beams surrounding the picture. What the hell was that? Alessa looked at the picture. There was something about that smile that was familiar, but she couldn’t figure out what. Where had she seen it before? It was supposed to be a positive image, but instead it looked downright disturbing and creepy in this place. And there were so many of them too, little ones encircling the big picture. Why? What was the purpose of it? Sometimes the logic of this place was beyond her understanding.

The room was obviously a sub-section behind the art gallery. She went down the stairs and as she was descending she spotted something to her left. She stepped off and saw a group of papers on top of a table. She rejoiced to herself when she got closer. Yes! These were the missing pages of the fairy tale. She picked them up and eagerly began reading the familiar tale.

_The priestess accepted the king's_   
_request and went to the village gates._   
_But when she saw the monster, she_   
_tried to convince it with words_   
_instead of killing it._

_“Shut up, you! I'm going to eat_   
_you up!”_   
_The monster didn't listen to_   
_a word the priestess said._

_But she kept trying to convince_   
_the monster to give up._   
_“It's wrong to eat people,_   
_you know.”_

_The monster grew very angry at_   
_this and attacked her, killing her_   
_with a single mighty blow._

Again, Alessa was struck by how familiar the story seemed. Where had she seen it before? Who had written it? It was clearly from her childhood, but from where was the big question. Although she marveled at the stupidity of the priestess trying to negotiate with the monster. There were some things you just couldn’t negotiate with, whether it be a ravenous monster, members of the Order, or bigots who disapproved of her life choices. She had learned that long ago. There were just some people that would never change their minds, no matter what. She wanted to be nice to everyone, but the truth was there were just some people who didn’t deserve compassion or consideration.

Two down, one to go. She needed to find the last section of the story.

 

~

 

Alessa shot two of the four-legged creatures as they crawled towards her. The creatures came out of the darkness, hunting them as usual. But by now she had figured out their routine, and took them out quite easily. They came out of the darkness looking for food, only to be met by her shotgun instead. She placed down some beef jerky on the floor, and lured another one to the area. She shot it when it showed up, making it sprawl out on the ground permanently. She knew how to conserve ammo, and once she figured out their patterns, it was pretty easy to nail them without wasting ammo. The creatures were major obstacles, so they had to be made dead.

She smiled gleefully as she killed the creatures. They were becoming less of a threat the more she went on. She was gaining the upper hand here. This world would have to throw a lot more at her than these, if it wanted to throw her off-track. They reminded her of anteaters, with their noses and their scurrying about. Except anteaters were cute. These were grotesque, and she wouldn’t hesitate to kill them.

There was also a sexual connotation to them, it seemed. She didn’t want to think about that. She _really_ didn’t want to think about it.

After she had gone through the door in that room, she found herself in this hallway faced with an army of those things. It turned out she was on the fourth floor. That passageway led to a section that was underneath the art gallery, leading to the fourth floor. And that was when they came. Luckily, they were just as dumb as the other ones, so she was able to deal with them pretty easily. That beef jerky she had found in the mall also came in pretty handy, even if she didn’t have any actual dogs around to give it to. Or, if she couldn’t eat it herself.

She found one underneath a bed in a room where there was nothing but the old frame. The stupid creature thought to hide underneath the bed in an attempt to ambush her. Alessa wasn’t fooled for an instant by the charade. She simply shot the creature underneath the bed, and then jumped on top of the bed to finish it off from there while it scurried along on the ground. Apparently, climbing up on its hind legs was not an option the creature considered viable. She grabbed the first aid kit that was on top, which had been her true objective all along.

She pocketed the box of ammo on the ground on her way out.

The hallway was empty. There was a large cage on the side of the hallway, or at least that was what the wall separating her from the void looked like. Alessa paid it no mind, simply marveling at the odd structures of this place and its lack of sensibilities.

There was a room that had the oddest assortment of items Alessa had seen thus far. Alessa stepped inside not knowing what to expect. There didn’t seem to be anything notable of interest at first, until Alessa noted the room’s contents. Alessa turned to the right and saw a sight that astounded her. Whoa. There was a huge mountain of coins scattered around on a table, with the coins so many in number that they were overflowing onto the floor. They were rare ones, too. Alessa didn’t know much about coin collecting, but it was obvious that these were extremely rare coins, from what little about coins her father had taught her. Again, Alessa was tempted to take them, but she decided against it.

If these coins were actual collectibles, they probably had a counterpart in the real world, and somebody would notice that they were missing. The last thing Alessa wanted was for someone to track them down to her, and come after her for taking the coins. Even though she had no idea how that would actually happen, she wouldn't put it past this place to engineer such a cruel prank on her. Or maybe she was just getting paranoid. Either way, she wasn’t willing to chance it.

And that wasn’t the only odd item in the room. There was something else that put the coins to shame in terms of being unexpected here.

There was a vending machine in the room. It was tucked into the corner of the room, away from the table mass of coins there. Alessa stared at it to make sure she was really seeing what she thought she saw. What was a vending machine doing here? She expected to see it in the regular office building, but not in this hellish version of it. This place was weird, and it was getting weirder by the second. What use did she have for a vending machine? It wasn’t like she needed a drink right now. Alessa looked at the vending machine. It was obvious she was expected to use it somehow. There was a message on the wall next to the vending machine. _“Thus one’s life turns to riches: What was a bag of silver coins is now the number in a book. Yet faith hath no price…Ah, but do people know this?”_ Heh, that was right, Alessa thought. Not. Actually, faith did have a price, in the case of the people tormenting her. She supposed that here it meant that there was no risk in taking a chance, with this unexpected find. She supposed the fact that it was in this place also meant that it was vending something other than the normal items one would find.

Alessa looked back at the coins. It wouldn't hurt to take one, she supposed. Nobody would miss it. It wasn’t like she had much of an option.

She put one of the coins into the machine. There was a thunderous sound as something was delivered down through the machine. To her surprise, an actual can came out into the cubby at the bottom! Alessa picked it up and stared at it. She’d half-expected the machine to be empty, and for this all to be one big joke. Alessa stared at the can. It seemed awfully light, and she was thinking she could hear something inside. Alessa shook the can violently. There was definitely something inside, and it appeared to be metallic in origin. Alessa popped open the can and turned it over. To her surprise, a metallic key fell out of the can! She picked it up. The key was small and silver colored, with a small tag attached to it. There was something written on the tag. Looking closer, it was a simple name. It read: Elberton Life Insurance.

Alessa thought about where she had seen that before. _Elberton Life Insurance…_ the life insurance office that was on the end of the first floor! Alessa thought excitedly.

Before she left though, she was struck with a curious thought. She wondered if the machine would vend anything else. She looked back at the coins. She supposed it wouldn’t hurt to take one more. The chance was that nobody would miss only two coins.

She put the coin into the machine. The rumbling of something coming down the machine once again tore through the room. To her surprise, another can actually came out of the machine. Alessa picked it up and looked at the can. It certainly looked normal. There was no tint of rust or anything. The can was heavy with a sloshing sound, indicating there was something inside.

She popped the top of the can open. Alessa smelled a whiff of the liquid inside. It smelled normal too; like soda, she thought to herself. Alessa looked at the product for one moment, before she made a decision.

Ah, what the hell, she thought. She was probably going to die anyway. She might as well go down having some enjoyment. She took a full drink of the soda, not hesitating to taste it as she tilted her head back. She aah’d in relief as she savored the taste. That was cool and refreshing. Her mouth was getting dry, so she definitely welcomed the drink.

At least this place was kind enough to provide a drink for her. The only question was whether it would do something hideous or transform her in some grotesque way.

She left through the door she came through. The room was at the end of the hall, which meant she had an anticipating view of everything that was awaiting her. The crawling creatures were all dead, so she had nothing to worry about. She was still thinking about the vending machine she found, wondering how such a thing would even come to be here.

Suddenly, a dog emerged out of the darkness. Alessa screamed in shock, taken aback completely by the sudden surprise. She sidestepped the mauling attack from the dog, allowing it to completely bypass Alessa. She shot the dog with her shotgun, downing it with a gruesome wound as it slumped close to the wall. In a rage, Alessa went and kicked the dog against the wall, sending it down to the floor whimpering until it expired. Shit. Every time she thought she had this new place figured out, some new surprise came out barreling at her.

Alessa looked at the hallway. Apparently the dog had come from that cage she had seen lining the hall, seemingly just a feature of the wall. Shit. She knew it was there for a reason.

 

~

 

Alessa found her way back to the first floor. She now had determination to finish the last piece of this puzzle and find out how to rid herself of that thing in the hallway. She rounded the corner and ran into another problem, one in a long line of them.

Shit. There were two more of those creatures.

They were there at the end of the hall. They were munching on some meat, vigorously chewing at it like savage animals. Yuck. So that was what those chunks of meat she kept finding throughout the building were.

She would have to do this carefully. She moved slowly with each step. She observed the environment around her for any signs of danger, noting how different it was from the usual floor. For some reason, this segment of the building looked slightly different from the others in the building, looking more like a dirty kitchen filled with grime and blood stains, rather than an office building. Overall it was rather gruesome and left her feeling even more disgusted with this place than usual, feeling like it was going to contaminate her with its grime. It was rather fitting, considering what she was about to do.

She walked right behind them. The monsters still hadn’t noticed her presence. Ravenous with their appetites, they obviously were too distracted to respond to her. Alessa wasn’t going to waste any more time. She pulled up her weapon and aimed at the foul forms. She shot them with her weapon, sending the monsters stumbling. The monsters struggled to breath and push themselves into preying form, but this close in the wounds inflicted on them were too great. Alessa stomped them both to death.

She went through the door into the final piece of the puzzle.

 

~

 

Alessa looked at the room. There was a table surrounding the entire length of the room, circling the expanse of it with a hollowed out opening in the center and a few chairs surrounding it. Alessa went over excitedly as she spotted the final missing pages of the fairy tale. Yes! She picked up the tattered pages and eagerly, anxiously began reading.

_The king and his people shed tears_   
_at the death of the kind priestess._   
_God took pity upon them and,_   
_granting their wishes, healed the_   
_priestess._

_The priestess opened her eyes just_   
_as she had done every morning of_   
_her life. She went once more to the_   
_monster's lair._

_“Fool! You wish to die again?”_   
_“No... this time it's your turn.”_   
_The priestess had come to defeat_   
_the monster once and for all._

_As the priestess was very very_   
_kind, she felt sad about this task._   
_But it had to be done._

_“Swords and spears won't work._   
_Arrows and bullets will just bounce_   
_off. You can't kill me,”_   
_the monster laughed._   
_But the priestess used neither_   
_sword nor spear. She chanted_   
_but a single spell._

_“TU FUI, EGO ERIS.”_   
_Do you know what happened then?_   
_The monster let out a huge cry_   
_and then died and vanished!_

_Thus the villagers were able to use_   
_their gates once more. Everyone_   
_lavished their gratitude upon the_   
_priestess, and they all lived_   
_happily ever after._

Alessa put down the pages. That’s it? All that work and fighting, all the suffering and close calls with creatures, all for a spell from a children’s story? “Tu Fui Ego Eris?” Alessa read aloud in confusion. She knew it: she should have just shot the damn thing.

Suddenly, there was a loud groan that echoed through the area. Alessa drew back in shock, shaking a bit in startled befuddlement. “What was that?” she asked aloud.

Alessa rushed out of the room with her gun in hand.

The hallways outside were quiet, and the noises coming from the floors above had disappeared, like all of the monsters were gone. Alessa gripped her handgun tightly, searching for any signs of trouble. She was about to run into that monster that was troubling her with its inconvenience, and dreaded the thought of glimpsing it thoroughly again, when she realized the monster was gone. The glass doors of the office building stood out proudly amid the drab walls and stained floor of the building, beckoning for someone to cross their threshold. The monster was no longer blocking it with its body, and had apparently been destroyed by that uttered spell she had poached, unwittingly, from the fairy tale book.

Alessa stared in disbelief. It couldn’t be that easy, could it? The only weapon that was needed to kill that gruesome monster was a set of words from a children’s story, written by a person she didn’t even remember? But it was sound as she looked across the area, realizing that the monster was completely gone and no trace of it whatsoever was left. The other monsters were gone as well, somehow she sensed it. Cool, Alessa thought. Nifty spell. Alessa rejoiced silently in triumph, glad beyond belief more than she had been at any time in the past few hours. She wasted little time in getting moving out of this place, finally letting the grip on her weapons ease into cautious relaxation. The glass doors of the exit for this building were awaiting her, gleaming like a reward for all her hard work and the struggles for survival she had done in this place. She crossed them gladly, never once looking back as she gladly left behind the dank blood and darkness of this place.

It had taken a long time, but finally she had her wish. The building still hadn’t changed back, but that would probably happen gradually over time. With all the monsters gone and no tasks left for her to accomplish, the Otherworld would recede gradually over time. That didn’t matter, though.

Finally, she was free.

 

~

 

Alessa emerged through the glass doors of the office building in a rush, stepping onto the sidewalk outside. She looked back at the building.

To her surprise, the exterior of the building appeared normal. There wasn't anything wrong with it, or anything that appeared odd. She didn’t go back inside, to check whether the Otherworld had disappeared. There wasn’t any need to go back there.

She noticed there was a plaque nearby on the concrete. _The Hilltop Center._ Hmm. So that was what this place was called! She had gone through all that and never even found out the name of the building she was in.

The streets were fine. There was no blood, no rust, or any signs of decay on the streets and the surrounding area. That was a hopeful sign. It was nighttime. She was amazed at how long it had taken her to navigate through that maze of obstacles in this location. Wow. How long had she been in there? Her watch had stopped functioning a while ago, probably because of the effect of this place, so she had no way of knowing what time it was. The night sky stretched above her like a featureless black shroud and the nighttime area was quiet around her, not a surprise considering everyone was probably asleep. Her cell phone didn’t work, so she couldn’t call her mom, her dad, or anyone else for help.

Suddenly, she realized where she was. This place was very nearby with regard to where her house was, and she had driven past it many times as she was going to some place. She didn’t know she was so close to her home now, not having any general idea where she was underground! It was funny. She had been through so much of the city and so much of its back passages and secret areas reserved for employees, she probably knew this city now better than most of its residents!

The street to where her house was located was open. But unfortunately, her car was still stuck back at the mall. She would have to walk. It was a long road ahead of her, but there was no other way. It was going to take a lot longer on foot than it would in a car, but she had no choice. She had to get home, and there was no one who could give her a lift at this late hour. Not that she would trust them anymore, after what she had been through tonight.

Those walls were still there, the ones she had seen before, white and covered in plastic, but there didn’t appear to be anything dangerous about them, and there was nothing out of the ordinary at the construction site. At least judging from the outside, from what she could see. Maybe she was wrong and they were just ordinary construction walls.

She began to walk, following the darkened asphalt path to her home.

 

~

 

Alessa strolled into the driveway, pushing her body to take the extra steps.

She had walked for about an hour. That building may have looked close in a car, when she was passing by it, but it was a lot longer on foot than she had ever realized! Since she was entirely exhausted from her adventurous journey and the dangers she had faced on her route here, she was forced to maintain a casual pace at the most as she made her way up the long, long road. She was dead. Her entire body felt like it was going to collapse into shattered little pieces of her form at every movement.

And when she thought that she was going to die if she went any further, she finally saw the outline of her house.

Alessa crossed the distance with excitement, glad to finally have a piece of good fortune. She was home. After all the dangers and all of the wondering if she would ever get back here alive, she had gotten back to her home. She had encountered absolutely no traffic on her way here, but who the heck was going to be crazy enough to be awake at this hour, outside? That didn’t worry her too much.

The gate wasn’t working. That was the first hint that something might be wrong. She didn’t let it bother her too much. They might have been having trouble with it. She simply scaled over it, hoisting herself using her last bits of strength to land swiftly on the other side.

The area was quiet and still, looking relatively normal to her eyes and ears. She passed by the fountain, nothing that there didn’t seem to be anything amiss. There wasn’t any blood, rust, or anything else lying around that indicated there might be trouble. Satisfied, Alessa proceeded further into the house, though she kept her grip on her shotgun, just in case.

The home that Alessa resided at had been inherited from her mother’s side of the family, and was an old house with a rich background of family history in its past. It wasn’t that large compared to other houses in that area, but it was still a steal for the price it was worth, even if it hadn’t been gifted to them, more or less. Two stories high in its architecture, it had massive space for the price and was more than adequate for a three member family. And there were some unique quirks to the house, which the previous owner had seen fit to install. It was rather sophisticated, but homely, much to Alessa’s liking. She didn’t want just any old simple home.

She entered the foyer, scanning around for any signs of danger. There were none, so she allowed herself to relax. She placed her shotgun on the nearby table. God, she couldn’t believe it was 1:00 am. The clock on the wall revealed the time. She was looking forward to doing nothing but collapsing onto her bed and sleeping for the next three days. They had to get out of here first, though.

“Guys, we have to talk about something,” she called out, stretching lazily as she moved through the entranceway, working out the kinks in her muscles. There was nothing that looked out of place. There was no coppery smell, of the type she would associate with trouble, or anything else. In fact, everything looked downright good. Still, she couldn’t relax too much. That place would return, and until they figured out what was going on, it would continue to plague her. They had to get out of here, fast. They could go to their other house, until this was all solved.

“Guys, we have to get the hell out of here,” she tried again, wanting to see if anybody responded to her.

She knew she should have been panicking, but she had to keep her calm about this. Her guardians would be worried enough about her, and she didn’t want to upset them right away by bursting in with a panic. If it had been the beginning of this, she probably would have done the panicking reaction, but she was too exhausted and worn down from her travels and tribulations. Besides, she was armed. She could take on anything this world could throw at her, if the Otherworld chose to manifest here and they had to protect themselves.

“Mom? Dad? Anyone in here?” Alessa called out a third time. No one was responding. She was starting to get worried now, especially since someone should have heard her by now. She walked carefully through the home, looking around for any signs of danger. “Kayla?” she called out her aunt’s name. Maybe they had gone out, and left her in charge. If she was around, she could help her.

She stepped into the living room. The furniture wasn’t overturned, and she saw nothing that was out of the ordinary. She rounded the love seat and that was when she saw it.

There was a bloodied woman’s form lying on the ground, just covered completely in the crimson life force flowing from her wounds. There was a large pool of blood around her, and it had stained the carpet deeply. There was blood splattered around in droplets through the carpet. She was wearing a police woman’s uniform, and it was one that Alessa would recognize anywhere. The uniform was drenched in fluid, stained to a dark brown beyond its original colors from the trauma. Alessa put her hands over her mouth, overcome with the horror of it all.

“Cybil!” Alessa cried, rushing down to the bloodied woman. She placed her hand on the woman’s chest searching for a pulse, but it was a waste of time. She was long dead. Alessa couldn’t believe this. She hadn’t seen Cybil in a year, and now she was dead. Who was responsible for this?! Why? And then she saw the blood stains leading to underneath the sofa. Alessa felt a sense of dread overtake her, but she followed the blood trail to its end, needing to see what was behind it. She crawled the few precious feet from the bloodbath to the sofa, until she saw something that caused her heart to absolutely stop. There was a severed arm lying almost underneath the sofa, ripped from the end of some unfortunate body with the end a frayed mass of nerves and bloodied tissue. But it was what was on the hand of the arm, on one of the slender manicured fingers that tore a hole in the fiber of Alessa’s being.

Her mother’s wedding ring.

There was a small trail of blood leading away and Alessa glimpsed another limb, also dismembered, but she didn’t look further. With the massive amount of blood loss on the floor, there was no way anybody could have survived that. Not to mention, the separated limbs. She didn’t need to look, under the couch or behind it. She already knew what she was going to see, and she had no desire to see her mother in that state. She would rather freely hold onto her memories of her mother, than have them tainted with the horror of what was lurking there. Alessa screamed in numbed horror, in agony, in extreme mental anguish, processing a thousand different emotions and thoughts in that moment. The tears came soon after, falling down her cheeks as she was unable to rise from her knees, crushed by the burden of what had happened here. She had been far too late. She had ignored the warnings of her mother and her friend being in danger, and had allowed the Otherworld to pull her into its little games, providing her with distractions and petty troubles galore; time wasting obstacles, all of them. She should have torn through the walls, ripped through the doors in the buildings, shot out the doors at the mall…done everything and anything she could to get home on time, and save those who were closest to her. Now two people were dead because of her, people who she loved and was close to, and they were just the latest in a long line of people. First Harry, then Cybil, and now her mother…how many people were going to die for her? How could she be so cursed by the goddamn universe, that everyone who got close to her met a gruesome death? She had no idea where her dad was, but he was probably dead too. He would have contacted her somehow if he wasn’t, and there was no way he would have allowed this to happen if he was here. He cared for her mother too deeply.

She stayed there for the longest time, stewing in her grief. It might have been minutes that went by, or it might have been hours, she didn’t know. She stayed there until she was completely drained of energy. She felt numb, like a powerful blow had hit her and left her unable to feel anything more than fleeting memories of sensations. Not only were two people dead, in addition to probably a third, but her existence as she knew it had come to an end, in a most grotesque manner.

The life she had built for herself was gone.

Alessa got up when she noticed the blood trail leading to the back yard. She ran in the direction of the trail, filled with a furious new determination. Whoever was behind this, they were going to die. She was going to kill them, in the most brutal manner she could think of. She didn’t care about the consequences of acting rashly, or whatever the repercussions were, later on. She couldn’t change what had happened, but she could ensure that whoever did this regretted it immeasurably, to their dying breath. She ran through the living room, into the kitchen, and out through the door leading out to their backyard, following the trail to wherever its end lied. She held no fear in her, fully determined to find the end of this trail and confront whoever was waiting there.

Their backyard was a large expanse, more like a courtyard than a backyard really. Shrubs and trees surrounded them in the area, giving them some measure of privacy like their own little retreat. They were overgrown and somewhat wild, since they hadn’t had time to arrange them in a more pleasing design.

And there Claudia was waiting for her, standing solitary amid the courtyard. The pale woman turned to her and looked at her with dark eyes.

“You’re late,” she accused, almost sounding annoyed.

Alessa looked at her in disbelief. Her childhood friend was standing before her, looking quite smug. “How could you?” she asked, her voice breaking from the grief.

The woman was not remorseful. “Revenge, for one thing,” Claudia replied, acting completely indifferent. “For taking you away from us, six years ago. That man, Harry Mason, already met his deserved fate six years ago, and now it was their turn. Don’t be worried, one day you will understand why things had to be this way,” the blonde woman intoned.

“Where’s my dad?” Alessa questioned harshly, railing at the blonde woman. She needed to know where her father’s body was.

The woman turned her head. “I don’t know. I was only able to confront that woman, passing herself off as your guardian. Her, and her alone. Unfortunate. Alas it seems that he has escaped our vengeance. He will have to be dealt with, later on,” Claudia said seriously, getting a foul expression on her face.

“Liar! What have you done with him?” Alessa screamed outraged, incensed at this woman’s denial when it was visibly obvious what had happened. Did she think she was stupid? She was the only one who could have done it.

“I am not lying. I have done nothing to him. Like I said, I have confronted only one person here. I am not aware of what has transpired outside here, whatever his fate may be,” Claudia said, causing Alessa to frown. If he wasn’t dead, where was he? But the slim woman continued. “I do not understand why you are so worried about them. They were interlopers in your life, and had no place in your rightful destiny in your life. I have done you no actual disservice by trying to get rid of them, eliminating their influence from your life.”

“They were my family! What right did you have to take them away from me?!” Alessa screamed, outraged beyond reasoning. She had hoped that somehow, it wouldn’t be Claudia that she encountered here, but realistically, she knew in the back of her mind it was probably her responsible. Her worst nightmare had come true. And now she had to deal with the repercussions, even if it meant killing this onetime good friend. She had no choice.

“You do not make a compelling case. You must understand this was inevitable, but it must be this way. I am simply returning to you the life you should have had: to birth our God and build an eternal paradise. That is your destiny,” Claudia intoned. The woman’s unshakable tone of voice grated on Alessa’s nerves. Did this woman care nothing for the lives of the people she had taken?!

“They were my parents! I chose them to take care of me!” Alessa screamed. She couldn’t believe this. Her childhood friend had turned into a twisted monster, and now she was every bit as deluded as those other loonies in the Order, which she had come to hate. There was nothing left of the old Claudia. Worse, she was a horrible murderer, who had dared to come into Alessa’s house and take away the one thing that was most precious to her.

“They weren’t your parents. They were simply pretenders, meddlers placed there by some power that had no right to interfere with the right way. Our greatest teacher was your real mother, and you disgrace her memory by dishonoring her teachings. You turn your back on her, and forget about all the lessons she ever taught you. You should be thanking me for getting rid of them for you,” Claudia said, sounding a bit irritated for the first time since Alessa heard her speaking. There was a foul mood in her stance, like Alessa had committed some unspeakable crime against her faith. She radiated menace, a crazy way of thought, and she was absolutely sure in her thoughts.

Alessa stared at her in disbelief. She didn’t hesitate. She loaded two shells into her shotgun and aimed her weapon at the intruder. She fired.

Her emotions were all over the place, so her aim was off, barely missing Claudia by an inch. Claudia dove to the side in an attempt to avoid the forceful blast, straining to move her body fast enough. Still, the pellets grazed her as they sailed by her, sending her to the ground. Claudia cried out in pain as they left a nasty flesh wound, eating away the cloth material of her clothes at her side, although non-fatal. Claudia stared at Alessa with a look of hurt, as though Alessa had committed some great betrayal of her and wounded her deeply. She cradled her side gingerly, watching her hand becoming covered in the blood pouring from her wound.

Alessa looked at her in disbelief. Did she think she was going to be thankful to her for ruining her life? If she did, then she was truly as deluded now as the rest of those fools in the Order wasting away their lives; even more so. She settled in for another shot; this time she wouldn’t miss. She was about to fire again, when the woman started speaking from her corrupt mouth.

“I didn’t kill your so-called parents, or that police officer,” Claudia said indignantly, gently cradling her side. “He was the one who did it. I made a deal with him,” she said, pointing at something far beyond Alessa’s back. “He had his own intentions for them. If you have an issue with it, take it up with him.”

Alessa looked behind her, searching to see what fool Claudia had roped into doing her bidding. Whoever he was, he was soon about to join her on the other side, whether he was ready or not. She turned around, ready to fire all her shotgun ammo on the cretin who had dared help this woman destroy her life, and stopped short at what she saw.

There was a gigantic figure marching across the yard. Seven feet tall, it was covered in blood that coated almost all of its entire body, and left only stringy patches of tan skin-like area visible. He wore a butcher’s smock that appeared to be made of human flesh, leaving his pale arms exposed. He wore a triangular crimson helmet that covered his entire face, although the helmet was smaller than what she remembered, allowing him to navigate the terrain easily. And it was what he was armed with that was scary. In his hands he carried a huge blade. The knife was long and thick, resembling nothing less than a sword than any actual knife. The figure was muscular and powerfully built, easily intimidating to the slim young girl, making it quite clear to Alessa that it could easily crush anything in his path, if he so wanted to. His dark boots stomped heavily on the ground. And he was coming straight at her.

The Executioner had found her.


	14. Interlude - Holy One vs Executioner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Disclaimer: Silent Hill is owned by Konami.**

**Interlude - Holy One vs Executioner**

 

The large, muscular figure approached ominously with its weapon in hand. Alessa backed away slowly. Even with her newfound rage flowing through her veins, the prospect of facing this foe was intimidating. The creature changed its appearance based on the person who was summoning it through their struggles, and for a person as powerful as her, supposedly, it had chosen the most muscular, biggest, most formidable form it could have possibly summoned. She knew there were some special forces soldiers who would have been obliterated by this thing, simply because those who were trained to deal with serious threats were often the strictest, most narrow minded people around. They were unable to adapt to new situations, and monsters like this took advantage and brutally tore them to shreds because of it. Alessa was used to dealing with things like this all her life, facing a vast array of supernatural threats, but this was still one creature that she had hoped would never come across her path, face to face. She was no soldier, nor a trained fighter of any sort, and the prospect of facing this hulking beast, with that huge knife, was intimidating on several levels, beyond anything she had experienced recently. She didn’t even want to imagine her mom and Cybil facing this thing alone, without any other assistance to support them. Claudia had hightailed it out of there. Clearly she was in no mood to risk Alessa killing her, by remaining in the area.

The creature took several steps, while Alessa backed away. There was a moment of tension, as the Executioner and she stared at each other across the yard, with her rival emanating a palpable air of malice, observing her like prey in a hunting clearing. She could feel how much the creature hated her, simply for being human like anyone else. Even though she couldn’t see the creature’s eyes through the helmet, the thought of its gaze being fixated on her disturbed Alessa immensely. And then the creature ran at her, charging forward easily with the huge knife in hand.

Alessa rolled out of the way to dodge the gigantic blade, which ended up buried in the ground. The creature struggled to pull it out; so forcefully it had struck out at its target.

Alessa shot several times at the creature, striking it in the body. She didn’t bother shooting at the helmet, knowing there was no point in attacking the metal. The creature grunted in pain, as each shot struck its target. The creature slid its blade out of the ground, as it readied its hulking frame for another assault. The creature charged at her, once again aiming its blade in a deadly arc at her.

Alessa backed out of the way, as the creature ran at her with surprising speed for its size. It slammed its knife into the ground, arcing the blade in a deadly swipe that narrowly missed her. Alessa switched to the handgun and fired, striking it in the chest repeatedly with multiple wounds. The creature roared in pain, reeling from the multiple wounds bursting on it. But the creature still would not relent. It kept coming at her, like a hunter intent on mercilessly demolishing its prey.

Alessa winced as an immense forearm knocked her to the ground, easily sending her flying several feet. She held her ribs, grunting in pain as she struggled to regain her bearings. Shit, that hurt. That thing was strong, probably stronger than anything else she had seen. And she had seen a lot. She needed to get up from here, before that creature got too up close. She couldn’t take much more of this.

Alessa rushed up to her feet, despite the shaky instance she experienced. The Executioner loomed before her, gripping its blade in a threatening manner. It pointed its blade in a gesture that clearly communicated its intent, and then it ran at her.

Alessa shot at it several times with her shotgun, and was amazed at how the creature seemed to run through the blasts with no pain felt whatsoever. It was almost like a bull charging in attack, intent on running over its prey. Were it not for her speed and her level of fitness, she would have fallen to this thing long ago. She shot at it several times with her shotgun, intent on bringing it down by any means necessary. Each blast connected, making a smoldering burnt hole on its victim. But the creature did not bulge, despite the wounds that would have killed another creature by now. Clearly it was made of something that allowed it to withstand such blasts. Or perhaps its healing factor was so advanced thanks to the god that created it, that its wounds healed almost instantly as soon as they were inflicted.

It was still a stalemate, and one side or the other had to give up eventually. But Alessa wasn’t ready to give up yet. She had to avenge her mom and Cybil, and there was no one else around to take this thing down. Not to mention, who knew how many other people it would go on to kill if it was allowed to roam loose on someone else’s whim.

She shot the thing with everything she had, calling on the fury she had to sustain her throughout this prolonged battle. The creature responded to the bullets, but they only appeared to marginally slow him down. And so it went. It was a game of wills. She would shoot at the creature with her weapons, the creature would come at her with its deadly blade, she would dodge the strikes from the knife, and the cycle would begin anew. The Executioner was formidable, but she had an advantage – the knife was heavy, unlike a spear, and it slowed it down from the speed it might otherwise have. Still, the being seemed inexhaustible, and appeared to draw on some limitless source of energy to keep it going no matter how many injuries she inflicted.

Alessa was getting discouraged. No matter what she did to it, the creature just would not fall down! She was getting tired, and she couldn’t continue to dodge the creature’s strikes forever. The creature showed no signs of slowing down. She shot at it over and over, but the wounds inflicted on it appeared to be superficial and had no effect on its ability to survive whatsoever. She had to think of something soon, or she was bait carved from the blade of that thing.

Unable to hit her with the sharp end of the knife, the creature tried another tactic. It slammed Alessa with the flat part of its knife, knocking the wind out of her as it sent her flying down to the ground. Alessa cried out in pain, holding her ribs as the blow reverberated all throughout her body.

Alessa struggled to get up, but failed. Her knees failed her, buckling under her from the strain of her injuries. The Executioner was regaining its own bearings, apparently surprised by the success of its own attack. She clutched her ribs and groaned in pain, as she lied there on the ground. The Executioner was still coming, walking toward her confidently with its blade.

“No…” Alessa tried to get up, but failed again. The Executioner took slow step after step in its intimidating stride, intent on finishing off its victim once and for all. She needed to get up, but her body just wasn’t cooperating despite how much energy she put into it.

“No…” she murmured tearfully. Her heart was racing. The monster wasn’t slowing down. She sensed her own death near, and to her surprise it left her cold, frightened. She was in a cold sweat, trembling all over. And the monster drew closer, sensing its own triumph drawing near.

The monster arched its knife back and aimed it at her with one hand, intent on striking her down in cold blood. Alessa saw her own death reflected in its blank exterior and the trembling increased to a maximum. The realization hit her full force, frightening her and leaving her cold. She was going to die.

“No!” Alessa screamed in fear, outrage, denial; every possible emotion. And then, something unexpected happened.

Instinctively she stretched out her hand, and an invisible force shot out towards the gigantic enemy.

The creature was sent flying as it was struck by the force, crumbling to the ground. Alessa watched in surprise as the creature got up, after being knocked down to the ground senseless. The impact of the force seemed to have hurt it, as though it was having some impact beyond just the physical impact.

Alessa struck out with her hand a second and a third time, sending out waves of invisible energy at the thing. The waves struck the being with hard force, leaving it reeling under the strain of the attacks. The creature stumbled under the waves of force, dropping down to one knee. The monster groaned in pain, and this time Alessa could see that it was physically hurt, as though it had been struck by all of Alessa’s rage, frustration, grief, and downright hatred of the situation. It appeared weakened now, and the aura of formidable invincibility around it was gone. Its movements were sluggish and raw. Alessa didn’t know what had happened, but she was going to take advantage of it for everything it was worth.

She shot again at the creature, again and again, pelting it with gunshot marks. The creature tried to reach her again, but this time Alessa was ready for it. Its movements were sluggish and weak, and were easily avoided. It was obvious the mysterious attacks had weakened it more than it appeared. Alessa shot it with a barrage of gunshots and shotgun blasts, taking advantage of the opening in the monster’s defense. She shot it in the chest, back, and legs, using up every last bullet she could. The monster wilted under the barrage, bleeding from many holes in its torso, showing the extent of how wounded it was. It gradually lost strength over several minutes, affected by every powerful shot, until it finally collapsed on the ground, sprawled out on the dirt across from its knife.

Alessa looked at the creature, writhing in pain on the ground. She felt so much hatred at this thing, so much pain and disgust, she could barely withhold it. But the resolution of this conflict was nearly at hand. She aimed her shotgun down at the creature. Gritting her teeth, she closed her eyes and pulled the trigger. After its long period of resistance, the creature stilled, felled by this final shotgun blast.

It was over. The Executioner was beaten, at last.

 

~

 

Alessa made her way back to the living room, following the blood trail from the yard. To her surprise, she was startled to see Douglas in the living room, looking over the remains of what had once been Police Officer Cybil Bennett and the blood pool splattered therein. Alessa’s face instantly took on an expression of rage. She could not describe the feelings she felt at seeing this interloper in her home, the disgust she suddenly felt furiously coursing through her veins.

“What are you doing here?!” Alessa ground out in a hard voice.

The old detective looked at her, with her finally catching his attention. “I…I came to see if everything was all right over here,” Douglas said uncertainly, shrugging his shoulders softly. He knew how callous his words sounded.

A sigh of disgust. “Great. You’ve uncovered my secret and destroyed my family, just like your employer wanted. Are you happy now?” Alessa said sarcastically. She couldn’t really help the venom that slipped into her voice.

Wince. “Calm down, I –” Douglas started, only to stop.

“Calm down?! My mother is dead! She’s been murdered!” Alessa screamed, exploding in anger at his insensitivity! “There isn’t even enough of her left to bury! My aunt’s been murdered too, and my father is missing! When the hell am I supposed to calm down?” she questioned, with his seeming callousness having touched a nerve. She couldn’t believe he was being so casual about this. And her life! This was her life, and he was stomping all over it – had destroyed it through his own stupidity and unwillingness to check out a client before he took on a job.

“Get out! Get out!” Alessa said venomously, aiming the gun at him. She was too tired to fight anymore, but this would only take a pull of the trigger with her finger. “If it weren’t for you…”

“Listen, I…”

“Get out!” Alessa screamed. After everything he had done, if he took one step closer to her, she was going to shoot him. He deserved death.

Douglas looked at the young woman aiming the shotgun at him. He had known she was a formidable young woman before, but it was then that he truly realized what a determined young woman she was and how much she had suffered, and that she would kill him if he made any false moves. She was dangerous.

Douglas held up his hands in surrender. “If it’ll make you feel better, I will…” he said, answering carefully.

Alessa sighed, looking down from the old man. She knew it was not really his fault – he had been manipulated by Claudia, and that she was taking her anger out on him. But that didn’t really change the fact that he was at least partly responsible for her parents’ deaths, as well as Cybil’s, and he was not to be trusted. What to do?

Alessa sighed as she slowly put down the gun. It just wasn’t worth it – not this time.

 

~

 

They stood in front of Cybil’s cloth covered body. Douglas had picked up Cybil’s body from the ground and laid her out on a bed in the guest room, sliding a clean white blanket over her. Douglas had also gathered the remains of what had once been Alessa’s mother, what little he could find, and covered them respectfully with a white blanket. Alessa was thankful for that: she would have never been able to do that on her own, without suffering some disturbing emotional damage in the process. She had followed him upstairs after, to where they lingered now. They had placed a group of flowers from a nearby vase on her chest. There wasn’t much more they could do for her.

“Is she okay like this?” Douglas asked uncertainly, staring at the unmoving body. The woman almost looked like she was sleeping peacefully, with her hands folded over her body, were it not for the trace of blood underneath the sheet.

“What else can we do for her? We can’t really give her a decent burial here with just the two of us, can we?” Alessa stated, looking down at the police officer she had come to know over the years. There was no way that they were going to bury Cybil out in the back yard, like some common piece of road kill. That would just be too disrespectful to the police officer, and a total insult to the woman she had known as a friend. Especially with that thing still out there, pouring its lifeblood into the ground, she thought.

They were silent for a minute.

“I’m going to Silent Hill,” Alessa said resolutely. That was where Claudia would be waiting for her: she knew it.

The old man turned to look at her. “What about your dad?” Douglas asked, concerned; that was the other member of the family that was missing, and he was surprised Alessa hadn’t mentioned him yet.

“I haven’t found any trace of him in the house. He’s probably dead,” Alessa said bitterly, the faint hint of emotion in her voice betraying how she felt about that. She was trying to maintain control, and almost succeeding.

“Are you sure?” Douglas asked concerned, wondering why she was giving up so easily, instead of trying harder to locate her missing family member. The look in her eyes spoke of information being withheld, something that Alessa wasn’t telling him. Did Alessa know something he didn’t? If she did, he doubted that she would tell him.

“I’m sure. Dad is very close to me. If he was still alive, he would have found a way to contact me,” Alessa said, painfully acknowledging what she knew to be the truth. There was something slightly absurd in how that would sound to outsiders from outside her family, but she knew her family better than most, and she knew things that they didn’t. There were things that Douglas didn’t know, and she wasn’t going to tell him anytime soon.

To an outsider, she may have sounded indifferent. But Douglas was a close study of human nature, and he could see the anger simmering beneath the surface. She was furious. If Claudia had been in the room, Alessa would have murdered her on the spot.

There was no doubt in Alessa’s mind. She was already decided. “I’m going,” she said. She was almost challenging Douglas to disagree with her, telling her how foolish it was.

“Are you sure that’s safe?” Douglas said in concern. He wasn’t sure about this girl going off on her own.

“Of course it’s not safe. But I have no choice. Claudia and the others are stirring up the same old stuff that was going on seven years ago, when my dad and Cybil were involved. The Order’s trying to make their plans for us become reality again. I have to stop them,” Alessa said. She turned to look at Douglas. “Besides, she can’t be allowed to get away with what she did here.”

“And when you find her?” Douglas asked pointedly, giving her a questioning look. Alessa looked straight at him into his eyes.

“I can’t allow her to get away with what she did here. When I find her, I’ll kill her myself, in the most brutal way possible,” Alessa said seriously, meaning every ounce of it.

Sigh. “Revenge doesn’t solve anything,” Douglas said, shaking his head.

“I don’t care. It’ll make me feel better,” Alessa ground out. She took a moment to calm herself. “Sometimes revenge really is the best solution,” she said.

Douglas had nothing to say to that.

There was a pause.

“How are you going to get there? It’s too far to take a walk there,” Douglas asked her.

“Don’t worry, I’ll figure it out on my own. I’ll take one of our other cars,” Alessa ground out. She didn’t want this man doing her any favors, and after what he’d done his help was probably more of a hindrance than a help.

“I’ll give you a ride. Come on,” Douglas offered, gesturing towards the door. Alessa shook her head.

“You don’t have to do that,” Alessa said. The idea of going anywhere with this guy wasn’t appealing, and she didn’t want to spend more time around him than was necessary.

“Look, I’m partly responsible for this. I feel partly to blame for this,” Douglas explained, pleading with her to understand. “Just let me offer you a ride. It’s a little favor I’m doing for you,” the older man said. It was too late to do anything for her family, but he could still do something for the girl herself. At the very least, it would make his conscience feel better.

Alessa considered it. While she didn’t want to necessarily spend more time with this man than was absolutely necessary, it wasn’t a bad idea. It was a free ride, and it would be quicker than finding the keys to one of their other cars and getting her own car ready. And his would be one more extra gun on the battlefield. She didn’t know whether the Order had set any traps for her along the way. It was obvious he was feeling guilty and trying to alleviate his conscience. Fine, let him help out then, she thought. She knew she was going to regret this.

“You are. But okay. All right, I’ll let you give me a ride,” Alessa said, not letting him forget that he was in fact responsible. At least this would get him off her back though, and it was one less source of stress she wouldn’t have to worry about.

Douglas started for the door. “I’ll take you after you finish saying goodbye,” he said. He continued towards the door.

“Hey.”

Douglas turned around.

“You realize you could die at some point through all this, don’t you?” Alessa pointed out, stating outright for him what she knew to be the truth. He had to know.

There was a beat as he thought of the right answer. Douglas was serious as he addressed her.

“That’s okay. No one is going to cry over my grave, anyway,” Douglas said. He shut the door behind him as he headed towards his car.

Alessa had nothing to say to that.

 

~

 

Alessa looked at Cybil, lying underneath the blanket they had covered her with. She looked so peaceful lying there, a stark contrast to what was probably the last moments of her life. With Cybil gone, another part of her old life was gone; there were already so few left. She didn’t know what to say to the woman she had loved as an aunt, though she hadn’t really known her that well. They had shared some things, but not all.

“I’m sorry, Cybs. I hope you fought until the end,” Alessa said honestly.

There was nothing more she could have wished for, than to hope Cybil and her mom had given those Order bastards hell until the end. Cybil was a fighter, and she wouldn’t have gone down passively.

Alessa looked around the guest room. There were photos, knick knacks, and various remnants of their family scattered all around the room. Even in the guest room, their family had a strong presence. It was to show any guest who stayed there that this was a close family and anyone who interfered with that would not be tolerated. And most people who visited there were extended members of their family – people they had sort of adopted into the fold. They had so few things from their time together, especially early on, that the things they did have from later on were displayed prominently and without shame.

She wondered if her parents would be saddened or disappointed by her thinking of revenge at this time. Probably not. They would want her to avenge them. They knew she wasn’t one to stand around doing nothing.

Looking around, she almost felt their presences, although she knew it was just an illusion, generated by the personal items laying around and the familiarity she had with the artifacts and with the room. Still, she hoped they were at least watching her in some way.

She sighed, picking up a photo from a nightstand occupying the room. She set down the photo.

There was something she had to do first, before she needed to leave soon.

“Don’t worry, guys. I’ll come home,” she said, hoping someone was actually hearing her.

There was no looking back as she left the room.

 

~

 

She found herself in the armory; it wasn’t an official one, but it might as well be. They had an extensive weapons collection, a result of their various brushes with danger each had had. Her dad collected handguns of various sorts from all over the world, from different time periods and makings, and her mother didn’t exactly discourage the practice. Everything was locked down tight, guns and ammunition separate, to prevent people of the wrong hands from getting their hands on them, but Alessa had no trouble getting into the collection, since she was one of the close few who knew the access methods and where the keys were. Not a big concern for self-defense purposes, since they each had their own weapons to draw on in case of an emergency. She searched through the weapons until she found what she was looking for: an IMI Israel Desert Eagle.

Very few people had the knowledge and the strength to handle this weapon. Their wrists would shatter, and the kickback alone would knock them back the first time they fired it. But Alessa did. She knew that she would have to face things like this again one day, and she had prepared. She exercised, lifted weights, and had trained to fire weapons like this in an urgent setting. While she wasn’t a soldier, she was competent with it. She could handle it; she was certain.

The gun was considered a joke for self-defense, because of how powerful it was, and the amount of overkill it embodied, but against creatures like this it was perfect for confronting them. Better to take them down in one or two shots, than waste 10-11 using a weak, useless gun and waste time combating them that others could use to break through her defense. She grabbed about 75 bullets – hopefully that would be enough to deal with whatever the town decided to throw at her. If the town was able to overcome her efforts despite all that, then maybe they deserved to win.

She set the gun on the cabinet. She had said earlier to her family members that she would return back home, but she already knew the truth. She wasn’t coming back.

 

~

 

Alessa stepped out of her house. She had strapped the sword to her back again. It had seemed too useful to abandon now, and it would come in handy if she lost her gun. The backpack she was carrying was filled with everything she would need to combat the Order, from bullets to the health drinks she had found.

Douglas was waiting for her in the driveway. The old man’s car was an old beat up Sedan that was light blue in color, and looked like it had more than a fair share of years of wear on it. Douglas came stepping around the car, carrying a curious piece of paper in his hands.

“I just ran into some guy named Vincent,” Douglas mentioned, sounding puzzled as he furrowed his brow.

“Vincent? What the hell is he doing here?” Alessa asked sharply. She was surprised. That was the last thing she was expecting to hear out of the old detective, and she couldn’t help but be a little troubled that Vincent knew where she lived.

Douglas was surprised. “You know him?” he inquired.

“I met him back at the office building. He’s a member of the Order, although he says that he’s trying to help me out,” she explained. Alessa made a disgusted face. “I think he’s their _leader_.”

Douglas made a disgusted sound. He had probably dealt with lots of religious fanatics, Alessa thought, being a private investigator and all.

There was another thing she needed to tell him, but there was no way she was going to share that particular incident with him, unless she wanted Douglas to go and murder Vincent in his church. In her experience, guys were protective of girls who underwent that experience, and it was almost like a personal offense to them that another guy dared to abuse a young girl like that. The last thing she needed was if Douglas blew Vincent away, and they were unable to pump him for information. If Vincent was really the leader of the Order, then he would have vital information that they could use.

The detective continued. “He said, when we get to the town to look for a guy named Leonard, and he gave me this map. What do you want to do?” Douglas held the folded piece of paper in his hand, presenting it to Alessa.

“Well, we can’t trust him, but obviously we’ve got no choice,” Alessa said, musing on their next course of action. “Besides, it’s just a map. Once we get to the town, we can go ahead and do what we want.”

She took the map from Douglas, looking over the images with a careful eye.

“I was born and grew up there, but it’s been a few years since I was last there, and things may have changed or been torn down. We’ll need this map to get around, if that’s the case,” she said. The hope was that they would be able to get around easily, but there was no telling what the Order had done to the town in her absence.

She folded the large piece of paper, stuffing it into her backpack.

They were ready to go, or so she thought. But then Douglas brought up something that surprised her, and made her do a double take.

“Don’t you want to contact your aunt?” Douglas asked.

Alessa was surprised. She didn’t think the detective knew about her real aunt. Not many people knew about her, and her dad was very secretive about giving anyone information about his sister. But now that Douglas had asked about her, she knew what the correct response was, without hesitation.

“No. I’m not going to call her and worry her,” Alessa said, shaking her head. “The phones aren’t working anyway, and even if they were, I’m not going to call her to let her know what’s happened. If I call her, she’s going to want to help me and I’m not going to get her involved in this. That woman has suffered enough, believe me,” Alessa said, imagining the aforementioned torments as she closed her eyes. There was no doubt in Alessa’s mind that she could not involve Kayla in this. If she learned about the horror of what had happened here, Kayla would want to willingly offer any help that she could provide them, and follow them to Silent Hill, and then she would die. Too many people had died here already, thanks to Claudia. Kayla was the last shred of a family that Alessa had left now, and Alessa was not going to put her in the path to certain death just for a little help with her vengeance. She was not going to allow the town to take away the last loved one left that she cared about. “I left her a note in the house, explaining everything. When she comes to check the house, because she hasn’t heard anything in a while, she’ll find it,” Alessa assured him.

Besides, if Kayla found out that her brother had been murdered, her response would be to go to Silent Hill and murder every single one of the people in the Order. Not the ideal thing. She would commit mass murder. Or the alternative – the town would react so strongly to her presence and her tormented mind, that it would punish her by constructing a nightmarish and horrifically brutal world, and destroy her. She didn’t know what torments lurked inside the mind of a sniper, and the last thing she wanted was for the town to manifest something so destructive, and hardened, that they had no chance of beating it. The idea of a veteran from the military walking into that town, and having their fears and dark thoughts manifested in physical form, wasn’t one she wanted to find out.

The few bits she had gleamed of Kayla’s past were enough. She had been through hell and Alessa knew it, and that was entirely without taking her military experience into account, in all solid honest. God only knew what the town would do with the whole of Kayla’s personality, not just the basic facets.

“Are you sure?” Douglas asked her, looking a little skeptical.

“I’m positive,” Alessa said, nodding to herself. She didn’t want to drag anyone else into this, any more than she already had.

She had thought she was being clear enough for him. Apparently not. “I’ve gotta ask again, are you sure?” Douglas was still skeptical, looking rather dubious. Alessa turned away from him, looking down to avoid his gaze that was boring openings into her back.

“I’m sure. Once she comes to check, it’ll only take a day or two, trust me. But that time will give us an advantage, and it will save her life,” Alessa said, seemingly very sure of herself. “Once we get to the town, the Order will immediately focus on me and hopefully they’ll leave her alone,” she said. She hoped that was enough explanation for Douglas.

Douglas didn’t respond. He knew that it was ultimately her choice, but he just thought it was wrong not to tell this woman that her family members had died. To leave her to discover that horror…it just seemed cruel. But ultimately, it was her choice. If she wanted to do this, then there wasn’t much he was going to say to convince her otherwise. He just hoped that she knew what she was doing.

There was a bit of an uncomfortable silence.

“Okay then, let’s go,” Alessa said. There was no use in delaying things any further. She was ready to get this over with.

They climbed into the car. Taking one last look at the house she had called home for the past several months, which suddenly looked a lot less inviting, they drove off into the night. Alessa didn’t know when they would arrive in Silent Hill, but for now, she tried to take her mind off it. They had a long drive ahead of them; the least she could do was try to make things more comfortable between them.


	15. Reminiscences of Yesteryear

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Disclaimer: Silent Hill is owned by Konami.**
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> **AN:** This may all seem a little difficult to understand, but Alessa basically split the timeline off into two branches. Think of the Terminator series, and the way the timeline keeps getting split off into different versions of John Connor. So now, you have the 'canon' Alessa, which remained in another universe, and you have the timeline that is presented here. Everybody alright? ;-D

**Chapter 12: Reminiscences of Yesteryear**

 

The rain fell upon the car in droves, leaving it slick with water and leaving the road equally so. The wipers worked furiously on the car to keep the view clear, so that the windshield didn’t become too foggy. It was dark all around them, and the foggy atmosphere that still lingered slightly didn’t make things easier. The car sped along the isolated road, maintaining a cruising speed that was neither too slow nor reckless for their well being.

Alessa sat solemnly in the passenger’s seat. They had not spoken more than a couple sentences since they departed the house. They had nothing to talk about, to be honest. She wasn’t here because she wanted to be, nor was he doing this for a close friend. They were here because of convenience – because it was convenient for her to take a ride with him to Silent Hill, and it was a convenient way for him to appease his conscience. They were each afraid to break the delicate truce between them.

“Cheetos?” the half-mumbled query came. Douglas offered her a shiny bag.

Alessa looked at the cheese puffs. She knew she had to keep up her strength. It wouldn’t do well if she was weak from hunger while she was trying to fight her way through those things in the town. This wasn’t exactly a home cooked meal, but it was better than nothing. She took the proffered bag and dug in.

“How long is it gonna stay like this?” Douglas asked bewildered, as he looked from side to side.

They had not seen one single human soul out on the road in all the time they had been out here. It was obvious they were still in that world of fog, whatever it was.

“It probably won’t shift over until we reach Silent Hill,” Alessa answered.

“What’s the deal with Silent Hill, anyway?” Douglas asked suddenly. “It used to be a quiet little town, but now…”

Alessa looked at him. “You’ve been there?”

“Once, on a missing person’s case. A long time ago,” Douglas shook his head. “Never did find the guy. I tell you, that’s one screwed up town. What the hell happened to it?”

Alessa gave him a distant look. “I was born and raised there, all my life. At least until I was 14,” she said.

The other felt awkward. “I’m sorry,” Douglas apologized.

Alessa looked at him. “It’s okay. I know that place isn’t exactly a great place to visit nowadays. It’s pretty terrible, and it’s only getting worse.” She paused. Alessa’s voice took on a distant tone. “The Order’s taking over that place. They’ve subdued the authorities and their members are growing in numbers three times than they ever were before. The power in that town is growing out of control, and it won’t be long before it’s too dangerous for anyone to enter without assistance.”

Douglas was without remark. No doubt he wasn’t used to someone talking about power and the supernatural and things like that, but it was true. There was no other way to explain the situation, except that whatever power was lurking there was growing beyond anyone’s control. Alessa wasn’t going to deny it.

Alessa nearly laughed in her mind. She knew she must really sound crazy. But Douglas had also seen that monster before, so he knew she wasn’t just making stuff up.

They were silent for a little bit. Douglas’ curiosity was suddenly sparked.

“Why Summers?” he asked suddenly, about her changed last name.

Alessa smirked. “My dad was a fan of X-Men way back. Not Wolverine, though – he hated Wolverine. He thought he was a stupid rebel who acted like an asshole to everybody for no reason whatsoever. But he liked Cyclops. He thought he was a great leader and a noble human being. My dad didn’t know his real parents, so he picked his own last name.” Alessa paused, thinking reflectively. “And…it sounded like a good name to start over with. Like the sunshine of a new morning, or a brand new spring day. I didn’t want to use my real last name. Not after what she did…” Alessa closed her eyes in pain. “It…that was her name, not mine.”

Douglas didn’t know how to respond. He turned his eyes back on the road.

Alessa held her hand to her head. “My head is killing me. That place has taken all the energy out of me,” she said. She felt exhausted, weary from everything, and almost downright sick. She wanted to lie down for 9 days and pretend this was all a bad dream. She knew that wasn’t an option, though. This wasn’t a dream, and she wasn’t going to wake up.

Douglas looked sideways. “You know, you can lie down for a while, if you want. I’ll be all right here,” the older man offered.

Alessa smirked at him. “Sorry, but I’m not going to lie down right next to you, if you don’t mind,” she said wryly.

Douglas smirked in amusement. “Huh.” She still didn’t trust him.

Alessa turned back to the road. The rain drops were falling on the window, obscuring the view of the forested landscape going by. She could almost pretend that it was just the two of them in a desolate environment with no threats or monsters; just two relatives going on a vacation through the countryside together. But she knew what was out there, and what was waiting for them in the town. The truth was this man was a veritable stranger, and they were not going on a vacation together. They were going to confront a group of individuals that had grown more dangerous through the years, and had apparently recovered enough to launch a full-on assault against her, after the defeat she handed them years ago. This was likely going to end with their deaths, or at the very least they would never be able to look at their lives the same way again.

Douglas was focused on driving along the road. Alessa knew he was dying to ask her what this was all about, but he respected her privacy too much to do so, especially after his full-on interrogation earlier at the mall. Alessa decided it was time to tell him the truth. She needed to unburden herself, and she felt like she was going to burst if she didn’t share the truth of what this was all about with someone.

At least he was a sympathetic ear. He was someone who would listen to her, and possibly give her comfort, or at the very least, not pass judgment on her.

“A long time ago, there was a little girl in Silent Hill,” Alessa began, her voice soft as she spoke quietly. “She was hated and picked on by everyone. The little girl didn’t have any family other than her mother, and she was treated terribly there. Her mother wanted her to be a part of the Order she belonged to, but the little girl just wanted to be loved. She only wanted to be loved by everyone and have a mommy and daddy who loved her,” Alessa spoke softly, remembering the memories of that time long ago, losing herself in the recollections like it was merely yesterday. “She was picked on at school and tortured relentlessly every day. You see, the girl had special powers. It was a power not seen in the town in a hundred years. She could kill people with her mind, just by wishing for it,” Alessa murmured softly, closing her eyes in pain.

The detective glanced sideways. “Wow,” Douglas was awed and a bit terrified.

“The torture continued every day for days on end, until the little girl got sick of her existence,” Alessa continued, resuming her troubling story. “So one day, the little girl prayed to the gods of the town to grant her a new life, without the pain she knew. And miraculously, one of the gods answered her call. Her power was to make things happen, so when the little girl made that prayer to the gods, one of them answered her. The Red god reset the timeline, creating a new fate for the girl over her old predestined one,” Alessa spoke softly.

The reaction was predictably complete surprise. “What?” Douglas burst out, his face incredulous and obviously wanting to ask her if she was making this up or not.

Alessa was serious. “I know it sounds incredible, but that is exactly what happened. The Red god split the girl’s life in two, creating a situation where one girl would continue her old path, but another version of the girl would get a chance at happiness in a new reality.” Alessa became distant. “That little girl still exists out there, somewhere. I’ve followed glimpses of visions of her life in my dreams, and she’s led an absolutely terrible life. I definitely wouldn’t want to be in the situation she’s in now,” Alessa said, shuddering privately in horror at what she knew of her alternate’s life. “But me, I went on to something better,” Alessa smiled tightly, recalling the good memories she had of her life. She’d definitely had some good ones, though they came close to being outnumbered by the bad. Alessa went quiet in her tone again. “I don’t know why he did it. He was following his own agenda, so it benefitted him in some way to have me away from my mother. Or perhaps, he felt some small shred of pity for me. The little girl drew people to her who would take care of her, unknowingly, strangers who would otherwise have never met her. The Red god threw them together to take care of her, so that she would always be taken care of. I was still with my mother, but they took me away from her, from the mother who could never take care of me,” she said softly. Alessa sniffled a bit, wiping away some mist from her eyes. “I created my own family, because I didn’t have one of my own,” she spoke thickly with emotion.

“Things were still hard. I was still tormented every day, but at least now I had them there to help me deal with the pain. I appreciated that, having someone to turn to when things got bad,” Alessa said, blinking back tears. “But then my real mother found her way back into my life. No matter what the Red god tried to keep her away, it didn’t work well in the end. She wanted to summon the ancient god of the town, so that she would wield the power it had over people, and she decided to use her own daughter as a sacrifice.” Alessa’s expression glowered with darkness.

“She burned her own daughter alive. She decided it was worth it to sear the flesh off her own daughter, and drive her to the brink of death, just to wield the power that the god would bring her. She shot my mother, my adoptive one, killing her own adopted daughter and burning the house we were in down to ensure the flames would consume me. She was merciless in her pursuit,” Alessa said, her voice now rough and angry with every passing word.

The detective shook his head in incredulousness. “That’s crazy,” Douglas said in disbelief. He wasn’t sure which part was the most insane – the beginning details, the work of gods in the story, or that a woman would literally burn down her house with two innocent people in it in an attempt to summon some mythological, long dead deity in a pursuit for power of the same kind. Douglas felt for Alessa if what she was saying was true, and he had a feeling it was going to get much worse in terms of what had happened to her.

“Maybe so, but it worked. The god was implanted into the girl, like a parasite feeding on its host. My dad was beaten to within an inch of his life by one of their demons and my mom was killed. He would later bring her back, using the Order’s own methods, but they did kill her. This was their main god, the one who supposedly created everything including mankind and the other gods, and they wanted nothing to stand in their way,” Alessa said, voice turning very dark. “They tortured that little girl, to ensure that she would serve their purposes.”

“They left me to rot in the dingy basement of a hospital. Their god drove me mad with suffering from within, feeding on my suffering. I nearly went insane from the sheer agony I was feeling. They wanted it this way,” Alessa recalled in recollection, closing her eyes at the memories of the pain. “This was their Creator Deity, the one who would supposedly give them power over human beings and even other gods; they wanted it to grow stronger. It wasn’t until several years later, when Dad returned to the town and got me, that I finally escaped.”

“How did you get out?” Douglas asked, looking sideways briefly from the road.

“We got sucked into that place, the misty world that you’ve already seen. I pulled them in, using my newfound powers to manipulate the situation. I confronted my mother there, and the doctor helping her. I killed people, many of them, to escape from that hell,” Alessa closed her eyes, “I didn’t regret it. I attempted to destroy the whole plan, so that all the suffering would end. I wanted to die, after all the pain I’d been through. It didn’t matter in the end, though. The god was still born, and it attempted to escape into the physical world; our reality. I killed my mother, my birth mother. I commanded the god to kill her. But then the god started following its own intentions, and I couldn’t hold it back. It’s funny, I was afraid of the threat it would bring, that it would kill the entire world. But in the end, that god was killed by three ordinary people working together, brought there by circumstances beyond their control. A writer there, vacationing with his daughter, that cop who had been there to help, Cybil Bennett, and my father, Chris Summers. The god was weakened by the resistance I had given it, and it wasn’t born properly. It was able to be killed by ordinary firearms, thankfully for our sakes,” Alessa explained to the detective. The doubting look was still there, but it was being replaced by the realization that he was caught in something way over his head.

“What about Mason?” Douglas asked, bringing up the other piece of interesting information he had discovered.

Alessa looked at him sharply. “Harry had been there vacationing with his daughter. When I was burned during my original ordeal, I split myself in half to escape, so to speak. Part of my soul, the part that could still love, cherish, and care for someone, was formed into the form of a little girl. The other, full of hatred and rage at her situation, remained chained up in that hospital basement. It was a form of bilocation, and something I could only do because of the god inside me. Harry found me when he was a tourist there, and he took me home with him. He raised me as his own, along with his then-wife. I could sense what my other self was doing, and it made me happy to know that some part of me, any part of me, was living away from that burnt flesh and musty trap in the basement. But eventually I had to call her back to the town. I needed the strength of my other self to fight Dahlia and her powers. When I met up with her again, I re-absorbed her into myself. She didn’t know that she was part of me, but when we connected again, she – we – instantly knew what was going on,” Alessa said, clarifying the details of something she knew Douglas had to be desperately wondering about.

Alessa closed her eyes. “Harry couldn’t accept it. Although he’d fought until the end, when he found out that his little girl wasn’t coming back he was devastated. His mind completely snapped. It didn’t matter what Dahlia and the other cult members had done, he blamed me for murdering his little girl. No matter what I did to show him, he refused to believe I was his daughter. He tried to kill me. Cybil was forced to shoot him, in order to stop him from killing me,” Alessa said, sounding as dark as Douglas had ever heard her.

Alessa took a moment to regain her composure. She took a deep breath and continued on for Douglas’ sake, determined to get the full story out.

“I was actually afraid of her at first. She had already attacked me before. But when push came to shove, she just couldn’t let him kill me,” Alessa said, smiling in reminiscence of the cop. “Dad took me away from there, to live with him. Cybil went her own way, to live far away from us, sadly. Later on, Dad brought Mom back. He used the Order’s own methods, finding a god that was sympathetic to him. He didn’t regret it, because that tragedy was something that should never have happened in the first place. It’s hard to protest against it, given the situation. After that, we lived like a regular family for several years,” Alessa said, closing her eyes in remembrance of the good times they’d had.

Douglas didn’t know what to say. This girl had gone through hell to build a life for herself that would satisfy her, and in one single moment it was taken away from her. He had the feeling any words he could say would be trite at the moment.

“They loved me, even though they didn’t know who or what I was. They were my parents, and sometimes more. They were my friends, my equals. I didn’t have many friends, but I could always talk to them about anything,” Alessa said in a breaking voice, eyes closed in solid grief. She was shaking. “I ruined their lives, but they never held it against me. They never blamed me for everything that happened to them. They only saw me as their daughter. Nothing more. I never got to tell them…how much they meant to me. I appreciated…someone treating me like an actual human being, not a freak with supernatural powers, or a little girl to beat and abuse until she was almost dead, or a pagan to be condemned for worshipping the wrong god. I loved them; I hope they know that,” Alessa sobbed, finally allowing herself to be overwhelmed by her grief. She couldn’t bear the pain anymore, trying to pretend she was all right.

It was done. Douglas now knew every dirty little secret that she had ever hid; how freakish and twisted her existence was – and the depth of what she had lost.

Douglas didn’t say anything as he listened. There was nothing else to say. There was no way to apologize enough times to Alessa for what he had cost her, and what she had suffered. He was afraid to touch her, lest she shrug away his touch in disgust and creep further away from him mentally and emotionally; she looked fragile and pale, if he were honest with himself: he was almost afraid of breaking her in some way, as irrational as that sounded. So he settled for silence, letting her know he supported her by making the attempt to comfort her before drawing back. He settled on driving, keeping his eyes focused on the road while he gave Alessa her modicum of privacy, however minimal it was. The rain fell on the car in droves, leaving long streaks of water on the windows matching the ones on Alessa’s cheeks.

“I know Claudia’s trying to summon the god again, and she hopes to use me for that purpose,” Alessa said, staring seriously at the falling rainfall outside the window. “But I won’t let her. I won’t become their experiment again, to use as they please in whatever way they see fit,” Alessa said, looking right at Douglas with a determined look in her eyes. He had every idea that she meant business.

The car sped along toward its destination, as the rain continued to fall on the road. The two lost souls in the car kept their thoughts to themselves, concentrating on their respective musings for a while. There were no two doubts about it. They were lost souls, each with nothing left, and though they didn’t want to admit it, there seemed to be a connection forming between them. They settled on the silence for now, not wanting to shatter the uneasy truce they had formed.

Never let it be said that silence had to be uncomfortable.

 

~

 

The light slowly filtered into the motel room little by little, gradually bringing the specter of daylight into the sanctuary. The darkness in the room gradually evaporated, until the daylight was breaking fully into the motel room. Alessa tiredly raised her head from the rumpled pillow, rapidly blinking her eyes from exhaustion as her blurry vision cleared up. Despite her earlier mistrust of Douglas, she had finally managed to trust him enough where she could get a few hours’ sleep for her own sake. She was a light sleeper in emergencies, so if he tried anything she was certain that she would sense it and wake up. She trusted him not to shoot her while she was sleeping, at any rate. They were in a motel that Douglas had discovered, and they had commandeered for the time being. They pulled in late at night, or early in the morning, rather, and Douglas decided that he would give her some time to rest and they would start with their investigation in the morning, since she could use a few hours’ sleep. Alessa appreciated the offer, honestly.

During the trip over, Alessa had told Douglas more about her past, clarifying some of the details for him. The whole story was a sordid, twisted affair. The Red god had cursed Dahlia with the inability to fully carry a child to term, as long as she possessed her selfish intention. It knew that Dahlia only wanted a child because of the power that it would bring her, and in response it punished her, making her unable to carry a child to term the whole way. Due to it, that forced Dahlia and the doctor helping her to try to find some way around that. For a reason she still didn’t understand, Alessa needed to be born, but the Red god would control the circumstances in which she was born. Unfortunately, they did find some way around that. Dahlia and the doctor helping her had used Julie as a surrogate mother, using magic and the doctor’s own methods to implant Alessa’s unborn being into her. Alessa was still Dahlia’s, but she would now be nurtured inside another person’s body for the term. Afterward they wiped her memory of the events. Julie had no recollection of what happened to her. She thought she’d gotten pregnant naturally. Afterward Dahlia had to stay away. The Red god’s curse was that Dahlia was unable to carry a child to term without miscarrying, and further interference in her life would not be tolerated. But the Red god found out what they did, and since they had already gotten away with it, he let them be in favor of watching over Alessa. It was the Red god’s hope, Alessa guessed, that being unable to bear children would teach Dahlia some humility, that she couldn’t have a child just for the power aspect of it, and that eventually the Red god could lift the curse he had placed on her, without requiring intervention from the two strangers he had lined up to take care of the special child. Unfortunately Dahlia and her cohorts found a way around that, seeking the help of another god. As the years passed, the Red god felt its power waning, and it was forced to turn its attention to other matters. It could no longer watch over Alessa actively, and Dahlia found a way to worm her way back into her life, despite the persons it had entrusted to be her guardians. The Order grew more powerful, until it finally attacked them, killing her surrogate mother and forcing the other parent to leave.

Alessa awoke to see Douglas putting several bags down on the table in front of her, just below the motel bed. She stretched languidly, staring at the assortment in front of her. “What are these?” she asked curiously.

“I got you these. I thought you might get hungry,” Douglas said simply. There was no ulterior motive in the statement.

Alessa stared at the packages. Cheetos, chips, and snack cakes, along with what appeared to be some breakfast food in pouches. Not exactly a sample of fine cuisine, but it would sustain her for the next eight hours or so. She needed energy, no matter how much she didn’t feel like eating.

Alessa allowed a small smile. “Thanks,” she said genuinely. It seemed like he was genuinely trying to help her. Good to know. Douglas looked satisfied over the compliment.

Alessa got a puzzled look on her face. Something had just hit her.

“Hey, you didn’t feel me up in my sleep, did you?” Alessa asked curiously.

The pleased look dropped from his face. “What?” Douglas burst out. The old detective sounded scandalized.

“There’s no need to sound skeptical. I know that’s what a lot of guys like to do in this position. Put their arms around the girl a little, while she’s out of it, you know. Grab a side of boob,” Alessa said casually, recalling some of the things she had heard about teenage guys, not to mention, older men, over the years. Then again, she had said to Heather that she could do the same thing if she wanted to, once, so who was she to call the kettle black? It was just her thoughts, that’s all.

Douglas was offended. “Hey, do I look like a pervert to you?” he exclaimed, looking every bit the indignant old man he was feeling like at the moment. He looked closer and saw her eyes dancing with mirth, with her laughing quietly to herself. “You’re teasing me,” he realized, seeing the giggling she wasn’t restraining.

“I’m sorry,” Alessa chuckled, barely restraining herself. She had to laugh, to keep the pain away, or else it was going to overwhelm her again. And she could not afford for that to happen right now. And this seemed like something that was so easy to pick on; he was so sensitive! She knew it was silly, but it was something she could pick on at the moment, to distract herself. She had always had a weird sense of humor, and it was definitely coming in handy at the moment. “It was just so easy.”

“Do you always talk like that?” Douglas asked stunned, gruffly scoffing a bit at her blunt attitude. He had never seen a girl like Alessa before, who was so free and comfortable with herself. It was interesting. He also felt a bit guilty, deep inside. She was changed now, and it was because of him.

“That’s one of the results of growing up with a single dad. I learned to say whatever I wanted, at anytime I wanted, regardless of who was in the room,” Alessa smiled, wistful at the memories. “Of course, he would have been mortified to hear me talk like that. He didn’t like it when I got graphic,” Alessa said sheepishly, backing off a bit from her bold attitude.

She understood why some people were made uncomfortable by that, but that was the way she was.

“Huh,” Douglas grunted, a bit amused. He had known smart ass punks like that all throughout his life. Sometimes they really annoyed him, but in Alessa he could see himself tolerating it, sometimes. She was unique.

“Are you okay?” Douglas asked. He knew she had been through a lot, but he hoped she had at least gotten a decent night’s sleep.

“I’m fine,” Alessa said. She was a little cold, wrapping her arms around herself, but that was about it. She was keeping a thorough check on her emotions, until this was all done.

“I’m going to go check out this Leonard guy’s house,” Douglas said, grabbing the prior map in hand. He had made a crude copy of it, afterward giving the original to Alessa.

“I’ll go head for the hospital,” Alessa said, nodding in assent. They had discussed this before. Douglas would check out the more confined place, having more experience snooping around, while Alessa would check out the more public place.

“Are you sure you’re going to be all right? I can switch if you like,” Douglas offered her. The hospital would probably be a more public place, with people there, but the thought of letting her walk alone into a building full of mental patients was a little unsettling.

Thinking about it, he hated to admit it, but it may have in fact been better for her to go to the seemingly more dangerous place, with one single target that she could take down easily.

“I’ll be fine,” Alessa reassured him. She smiled mischievously at him, staring at him curiously while she looked him over. “Are you sure it’s not you who’s afraid to be alone?” she asked knowingly, smirking a bit.

“You’re damn right I’m afraid. I’m fifty something years old, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Douglas said unapologetic, admitting what he knew was the truth. “I feel like I’m dreamin’.”

“It’s not a dream, it’s a nightmare,” Alessa said, correcting him with a thoughtful shake of the head. He had no idea about the things she had seen, and she had a feeling he would see much worse before the day was out. “You don’t want to know some of the things that are out there in this world. Trust me, I’ve fought some of them before, and they are some really nasty beasties. There are some things out there that surpass anything in your worst nightmares,” she said. The old man looked disturbed by the thought.

“I just want to wake up already and have a smoke,” Douglas said, sighing from the weariness of it all.

“Trust me, that won’t happen. This is reality,” Alessa affirmed to him. She knew what he was feeling, but it was a moot hope. No matter how much he wished it, they were not going to wake up from this ordeal. The sooner he accepted that, the better it was for them.

“Are you going to be okay with that thing?” Douglas asked, looking at the gun she had out beside her on the bed.

“Yeah, why?” she asked.

“I don’t know. Isn’t that gun a little big for a girl?” Douglas shrugged, pointing out what he thought was blatantly obvious. He wasn’t looking to offend her, but that gun looked a little out of place in her tiny hands. He wasn’t ashamed to admit it. He was an old fashioned guy.

“You sound like Snake,” Alessa groaned, a bit in disgust. It was then that she noticed the blank look on Douglas’ face, and that he was looking absolutely puzzled by her statement.

“Solid Snake. From Metal Gear Solid,” she clarified for him. Douglas’ face was still blank, and Alessa was a bit disheartened as she realized he had absolutely no idea what she was saying. “It’s a video game series,” she sighed, a bit disheartened that she even had to explain. She looked at him a bit in disgust. “I’m not surprised, I guess the last video game you played was probably Pac-Man,” she said dismissively.

“Hey!” Douglas exploded with an offended look on his face. Alessa looked up sharply at the raised tone in his voice.

“Mario. It was Mario. I’m not that old,” Douglas said, muttering a bit in mock offense. He knew his hair was thinning, and he looked a little bit grizzled and rough around the edges, but geez! He then noticed her silently laughing and felt a bit annoyed at himself, and her too. “You’re really good at doing that, you know,” he said, gruffly scoffing a bit in disgruntlement. She knew what he was talking about. Making fun of the old man…he supposed he deserved it, but it was still annoying that he was stuck with her like this.

“I’m sorry,” Alessa laughed, allowing herself to lose herself in the moment. She had to laugh, otherwise she would cry. If she didn’t find the humor in the situation, she would go insane from the guilt and the pain that was wracking her. So she laughed at his offense. “You’re just so easy to tease,” she laughed.

“I’m glad you’re enjoying it,” Douglas said, frowning as he turned to walk away. He paused. Something occurred to him. It was about something that she had said earlier, which he found curiously interesting. “Hey, you said that you were able to draw people to you when you were a child. You think maybe you couldn’t rustle us up a little help, here?” Douglas suggested, with a curiously cheesy grin on his face.

“Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. What happened was a drawn-out process, and it would take several years to execute. I wouldn’t be able to do it here,” Alessa said. Alessa lifted an eyebrow at him. “Besides, do you really want to involve more people in this mess?” she asked wryly.

“Heh. Good point,” Douglas said wryly, shaking his head. She was right, of course. More people involved in this mess, for them to worry about – that was the last thing they needed at the moment. He soon found another concern to concern himself with, though. He looked at the young woman, curled up on the bed and looking very frail in her pale demeanor. “Are you sure you’re going to be all right?” he asked, still worried about her.

“I’m sure,” Alessa smiled at him. She had her handgun and her weapons, and the other things she had brought. She appreciated his concern, but the truth was she could manage by herself. They needed to get out there.

Douglas turned to walk away.

“Douglas?”

Douglas turned back.

“If you find Leonard and it turns out that he gets aggressive with you, don’t hesitate to shoot him,” Alessa said.

Douglas looked at her closely. What was it that was so concerning her, that she would advise him to shoot someone who could be their best bet for information? Did she know who Leonard was? If so, what could be so concerning about him? He nodded simply. Somehow, he already knew that it wouldn’t be wise to ask her.

“All right,” he responded, in a low gravelly voice. And then he left the motel room, off to pursue his lead.

Alessa looked around the motel room. For the first time in the past eight hours, she was alone. She looked around the seedy motel room with a fine eye, taking in all the details of what was apparently a vacated building, noting the dirt and grime settled over some of the things in the place. She had taken a nice, long shower as soon as she got here, unable to bear remaining grimy with the essence of that place on her in its sweat and blood. Miraculously the plumbing still worked in the motel room, despite the place’s state of disrepair, allowing her to get cleaned up. She was thankful, otherwise Douglas would have had to put up with her in that state for the rest of their stay. The water was also a soothing presence, allowing her to get lost in its comforting warmth as the streams cascaded down her back. She had eaten too, the few food items she had brought from home. She needed to keep up her strength. That was the practical side of things, taking over the emotional aspects.

The place looked like it hadn’t seen activity in a year, with a fine sheen of dust covering everything except the bed. It was odd that the piece of furniture was untouched while everything else wasn’t, but she wasn’t about to question it. She wondered how this place could stay operational when the place was obviously abandoned, but it wasn’t something worth going too much thought into. It was just another of the mysteries of the town, one she would never have an answer to.

The tables and lamps were covered in dust, and all the TV showed was “snow”, static from the result of the cable being cut off. There was nothing interesting in the room, other than what she had already seen. While it would be tempting to remain here hidden away from the dangers, she couldn’t dawdle around here too long. It was a safe sanctuary, but that was all.

She had to go out there. There couldn’t be any more delaying it. This was the only way any of this would ever get solved.

Alessa looked down at the gun in her hand. There wasn’t anyone else in the room, but it was all the reminder she needed of what she had to do.

“Well, let’s take care of business,” she said to the open air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **AN: Yes, Alessa is a gamer. ;-D**


	16. An Old Friend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Disclaimer: Silent Hill is owned by Konami.**

**Chapter 13: An Old Friend**

**Exploring Silent Hill**

 

The fog hung heavily in the air, creating a thick blanket of white that covered the area almost completely. It was almost like a thick mixture, palpable in its texture. She could barely see where she was going, as it took her eyes some time to adjust to the fog, but the major structures still managed to rise above the fog, imbuing her with some sense of what the town was like and a perspective of where in its boundaries she was. It was dirty and decayed, but intact. The parking lot of the motel was not particularly interesting, but beyond it there were definitely more telling sites to behold.

Alessa looked around the town, noting the conditions of the buildings and their familiarity to her. This place hadn’t changed at all. The buildings were dirty and decayed, the paint was peeling off, and some of them had developed rust in the edges of their metal siding, but that was about it. It was astounding how little the town had changed over the years since she’d been gone. She was expecting to come here finding it devastated and crumbled, but instead it was only a little dirty. The Order had taken good care of it, although they had abandoned Vale to rot. Apparently, in this case, taking care of it meant leaving it alone rather than razing it into the ground, as some of them had wanted to do.

She passed by a brush filled area laden with stone that stood out dramatically in the area compared to the drab buildings. Alessa recognized it instantly: Rosewater Park. Her mother had had some fun with her dad here, and she told Alessa some of the details. She didn’t tell her every last detail in painful specifics, but they had some mischievous, unapproved fun in here once and when they were after hours, when nobody was around. Alessa was surprised at how bold her mother was, although she hadn’t really changed that much in the years since. She smiled; she was curious to see where her parents had apparently had some special times together. The area was beautiful too, so it wasn’t a total loss of time. She decided to go past the gates.

She walked through the park, taking some time to calm herself and her soul from the terrible experiences she had endured. It might have seemed odd to some, given that she needed to go to the hospital after Leonard. But she was building up a sense of calm, before diving in. She knew that once she stepped back out there, there was no turning back. Alessa looked around, taking in all the beautiful details of the shrubs and the flowers planted in the miniature gardens. It was amazing that such a beautiful place existed in a place this wretched. She took a few moments to bask in the peacefulness, taking in the atmosphere. There was another reason she was hesitating. This was her home, once. And though it was maligned and corrupted by the Order, it was still within her nature to take in the atmosphere and how much things had changed, or not, in either case.

She could feel them watching her, watching her every move. The spirits of the town were numerous beyond measurement, and they did not let anything go unobserved in this place. Alessa was a little unnerved, but not enough to pack up and go home. She had a mission to do, and she had to carry it out.

This place was once a peaceful, pleasant environment; it was considered a sacred place, once. In a way, the park was the last remnant of that once prosperous town. It saddened Alessa, to know the peacefulness of the town had been corrupted over the years, both by the gods and the humans’ own dark actions. She could still sense the peacefulness in the town’s aura, but there was definitely a dark undercurrent running underneath. It was permanent, immovable and there was nothing that could be done to remove it. It was simmering under the surface, waiting to explode at the first sign of something being ready.

Still, as long as she didn’t probe too deep, it was okay. The surface itself was beautiful, and projected a very peaceful sense despite what Alessa was sensing. She wished she could stay here all day, soaking up the calming atmosphere, but she had to get going.

She passed the gas station. Texxon was a much smaller rival of the major company; she had always found it weird that they chose such a similar name, but at least there were no “ingenious” names like Exaco or something, for the other stations around here. She spotted something sticking out of a newspaper receptacle. Picking it up, she realized that it was a book.

She looked excitedly over the careworn artifact. Hmm, she already saw that it was no ordinary book of the sorts available in a gas station around here. The book was old, worn from use, and was covered with an aged leather jacket that had been dyed green at some point. The title read “Lost Memories”, and was printed in delicate gold letters on the cover. Alessa thumbed through the pages, turning to one particular section that seemed to be divided into two sections, as if someone had been reading through them recently.  
  
 _The name comes from the legend_  
 _of the people whose land was_  
 _stolen from them._

_They called this place "The Place_  
 _of the Silent Spirits." By "Spirits,"_  
 _they meant not only their dead_  
 _relatives, but also the spirits that_  
 _they believed inhabited the trees,_  
 _rocks and water around them._

_According to legend, this was_  
 _where the holiest ceremonies_  
 _took place._

_But it was not the ancestors of_  
 _those who now live in this town_  
 _that first stole the land from these_  
 _people. There were others who_  
 _came before._

_In those days, this town went by_  
 _another name. But that name is_  
 _now hopelessly lost in the veils_  
 _of times._

_All we know is that there was_  
 _another name, and that for some_  
 _reason the town was once_  
 _abandoned by its residents._  
  
Alessa was familiar with all that. She had learned intimately the details of the first settlements in the town from her real mother, who had made sure to drill the religious order’s facts into her, as well as the history lessons she had gotten, from the local library. The first settlers had found, came and stolen the land from the local Indians, or Native Americans, who lived in the area originally. They had figured they had gotten some free land, but they were in for a nasty shock. As a result, the gods imposed a plague on them and the town was abandoned. The plague devastated the area and the town began to manifest the dark thoughts of the people there. Later on it happened again, with another band of settlers not respecting the town’s traditions, and another plague being unleashed. The town’s history society recorded the plague, but did not state that it was a result of the gods’ anger. They didn’t know. And so it remained, with the reason for the previous settlement’s abandonment being proclaimed a mystery. Alessa knew there was no mystery. The town had turned against those who had usurped it and destroyed them, turning its anger on them. The town was already chaotic on its own. When guided by the sentient minds of those who could control it, it became a death trap for anyone who was there. People disappeared, ominous ailments spread, and fear took hold over the townspeople. A part of Alessa wished those settlers had never set foot in this place, since that would have avoided all of this, but one couldn’t go back and change the past. You could only deal with the future, and that meant dealing with the problems in the here and now.

Thankfully, the town had enacted peace for much of the time after that. But then the Order changed and had become corrupt. It had morphed from a peaceful religious order into a group bordering on the demonic, using the town’s powers against people they didn’t like in ways they didn’t fully understand. And that led them to their present situation.

There was nothing Alessa could do to change the town’s past, or remove the corruption presently plaguing it. But she could ensure that Claudia and the others like her didn’t hurt anyone else ever again.

The gas station was relatively uninteresting, and empty, so she moved on. The only thing of note was an old rusted car, abandoned in the middle of pumping gas, and it was obvious by the rust on its surface that she couldn’t use it, to get around or face down some of the monsters.

She came to a building with a sign in the shape of a bowling pin looming over her, with the name displayed prominently on the sign: it was titled Pete’s Bowl-a-Rama. Alessa loved bowling, and she was actually a very capable player, but she didn’t have time to play. She would have liked to go in and play a few frames, but she wasn’t here for that, and in her current emotional state that wasn’t a priority. She frowned a bit, in disappointment. She really wanted to see what was in there. This place had a habit of leaving ammo and things in the oddest places. But it was locked and there was no getting in there. Alessa smiled. She might have looked incapable with her slim build and short height, but she could probably outbowl a big, burly guy like Douglas easily in two minutes, no problem.

There was a mural of a bowler painted on the wall surrounding the bowling alley. It looked like it had been done by a kid, although it was very skillfully done. Alessa smiled: even in this very wretched town, there were still kids with spirit, and that was very encouraging.

Suddenly, a noise in the distance caught her attention. The sounds of growling and feet pattering rumbled in the mist shrouding the streets, alerting her to the presence of creatures in the fog. “Here they come,” Alessa said tiredly. It had taken a while for the town to react to her presence, but now they were starting to come after her. She had expected it, though she rather hoped the town would at least cut her a break for a little while.

She waited patiently until the steps drew closer to her. When they were at their closest, she spotted a bandaged dog emerging out of the fog and Alessa instantly sidestepped it. She shot at the dog as it leaped past her, downing it in one shot. She shuddered as the force of the gun nearly sent her back, though she managed to hold onto it. The dog yelped as it lied prostrate on the ground, and died soon afterwards. Alessa looked at the gun in her hand. Not bad, she thought.

Another dog emerged out of the fog, and Alessa once again tried the same strategy. The dog leaped past her as she sidestepped it, and once again Alessa downed it in one shot. She almost felt sorry for them, she thought, as she took them down easily with her gun, thanks to their repetitive actions and limited intelligence. They stood no chance against her, with her handgun and her growing awareness of them. It wasn’t fair. But then she was reminded of the fact that these things would kill her without hesitation if she gave them the chance. She felt no remorse about it whatsoever. It simply had to be done. There were no bones about it.

She thought about going to the Historical Society, on a whim, but she had a funny feeling about that place, and that place was probably cursed, from what she had heard of the town recently. She was never going to set foot there under any circumstances.

She decided to follow the road down until she got to Brookhaven. Best to get her visit to the hospital over with. Suddenly, she heard a rush of commotion behind her. She turned around to see a dog emerging out of the fog, intent on mauling her and tearing her to bits with its ravenous jaws. She quickly shot it down, before it could reach her. She heard more ferocious sounds and ran for her life, hearing the sounds of foot falls and scampering behind her. She turned around to see another dog emerging from the vapors, and had only a few seconds to shoot it down before it caught up to her. Alessa let out a deep breath. Her heart was beating thunderously in her chest. She took a few moments to calm herself. There. Things were okay again. No other sounds of dangers manifested.

She suddenly realized where she had stopped at. She looked to see a long stair heading up a back alley, leading to a door that was slightly decorated with a neon sign above it. Alessa looked at the map and realized the name sounded familiar.

_Heaven’s Night._

She decided to go in out of curiosity. Hmm. She had heard of this place before, though it wasn’t somewhere she was intimately acquainted with. She made her way up the long and daunting stairs, and stepped inside.

She was greeted by the sight of booths, overturned beer bottles on the tables, and a darkly lit atmosphere covering the whole place. This place smelled of cigarettes and drinks, and it had obviously not been cleaned in a long time. This was a bar obviously, and the stage at the center of the room told of something else. So this was a strip club, Alessa thought, with half-amusement and half-disgust. There was a long bar at the back, filled with dozens of drinks that were appropriate for the setting. She approached a neon sign that was on the wall, covering the room in a whole haze of pink amid the shadows.

The sign was wired in the form of an obviously naked woman, and there was a single word written under the lighting: Paradise.

So this was ‘Paradise’, huh? Well, at least it was better than the Paradise Claudia was talking about. She would gladly take naked women over a rusted hellish realm and monster demons any day.

She wasn’t actually bothered by the place’s intention, though. This wasn’t her sort of place, but she held no grudge against them. Perhaps it spoke something about her level of detachment, but she much preferred to let people do what they want, rather than judging them. Thanks to her background, she didn’t share most people’s religious and moral concerns. Considering what she’d done in her life, most people would have been shocked to hear her views about love and sex. As long as no one was getting hurt, she had no objections to what was going on in places like this. Exploitation was an entirely different subject, and one to be dealt with on a case by case basis.

She noticed a tourism publication on one of the tables that caught her notice. That was right: Silent Hill was originally a tourist town, as she very well knew. Her parents had taken the last leg of their honeymoon at the Lake View Hotel, enjoying the tranquil atmosphere of the lake and other things that had made Alessa blush when her mother talked aloud about them. She picked up the pamphlet, leafing through the few pages with a sense of curiosity.  
 _  
Welcome to Silent Hill!_

_Silent Hill, a quite little_  
 _lakeside resort town._  
 _We're happy to have you._  
 _Take some time out of your busy_  
 _schedules and enjoy a nice restful_  
 _vacation here._

_Row after row of quaint old houses,_  
 _a gorgeous mountain landscape, and_  
 _a lake which shows different sides_  
 _of its beauty with the passing of the_  
 _day, from sunrise to late afternoons_  
 _to sunset._

_Silent Hill will move you and fill_  
 _you with a feeling of deep peace._  
 _I hope your time here will be_  
 _pleasant and your memories will_  
 _last forever._

_Editor: Roger Widmark_  
  
Alessa set the pamphlet down gently. She didn’t know why, but there was something unsettling about the name ‘Roger Widmark’. She didn’t know why. It sounded like a perfect description of those quaint old houses and relaxing settings, and yet there was something about the name of the tourism writer that left her cold all over. And the more she thought about it, the more she realized it had something to do with her parents, and not the one she’d expect. She didn’t know why that was concerning; her father didn’t know Roger Widmark, as far as she knew. Suddenly, Alessa realized that she didn’t want to know. Whatever was lurking there, it was clearly the town feeding her background subconsciously, and she didn’t want to pursue further the thread it would lead to. She liked to think of her parents as invincible, and despite recent events proving them otherwise, if this was leading where she thought it was, then this would definitely shatter that perception of them.

That wasn’t the only negative thought she had. Those quaint old houses sounded pretty and charming, but they weren’t looking so good when Dahlia was burning them to the ground, she thought nastily. Neither was the calming, tranquil lake all that charming when the Order was using it for their sacrifices.

She was about to leave when she noticed a poster laid out on the floor of the stage. The poster turned out to be a flyer for one of the dancers in the club, and featured a woman with blonde hair, pink highlights, and a skimpily clad, sexy body, advertising the return of a dancer called “Lady Maria”. Alessa was shocked when she recognized the woman in the image. And suddenly, she thought back to several moments in her journey when she came across something unusual…

_The belligerent woman in the bathroom stall, who refused to help her…_

_The butterfly pendant she found in the bloody toilet, when she dared to pick it up, which seemed kind of familiar…_

_And now the butterfly tattoo on the hip of the woman she was staring at…_

_No way! Her?!_ Alessa thought in bemusement. She had thought that voice sounded familiar, but she couldn’t place where she had heard it before. Alessa’s surprise turned to frustration. Why did she keep crossing paths with this woman?! It was like the woman was following her around from place to place, determined to torment her at every turn.

Her name was Maria. She was a resident of Silent Hill, the same town Alessa had left behind. Over the years, their path had crossed several times, the first time being when Maria gave out some unfortunate information about Alessa to their enemies. Maria possessed mental powers of extraordinary length over regular people, powers that Alessa couldn’t hope to match without her own abilities. It all made sense, seeing as how Maria was not a woman at all, but a specter of the town who had been allowed to leave and develop a regular life outside of it. She had taken human form, and now traveled from place to place enjoying what society had to offer her. Suffice to say, she had forced Alessa to do some very unexpected things that she still regretted. It was the only time she had ever de-evolved into a common teenager on her spring vacation, acting without any thought to the consequences. It was only because of her intense dedication to them that Alessa was even able to look her friends in the eye.

And the worst part was that it wasn’t even Alessa who was the target. Her father had been the one who had an argument with Maria, after confronting her about her unscrupulous actions, and so she took it out on Alessa. In payback for the threat, she decided to twist Alessa’s mind and those of her friends, to do whatever she wanted. Considering Maria was a lust demon, for all intents and purposes, there was only one way the whole unfortunate incident could have gone.

Alessa grumbled to herself as she surveyed the flashy picture. “I knew I should have shot her,” she muttered to herself, looking down at the handgun in her hands.

On the positive side, at least that took one worry off her mind. This probably meant that bloody toilet she found in the stall of that place was a joke, intended to startle her with its goriness. She knew that now. The town wouldn’t kill one of their own people. She had been worried about the outcome of whoever the person was who was in there, but now she knew they had probably just disappeared back into the real world, and the bloody toilet stall was just a joke sight for Alessa to get concerned about.

She turned around, as she suddenly got an idea.

A few minutes later she had finally left, though not before scribbling a few nasty images on two of Maria’s greatest assets, and a third one that was probably bringing her a lot of money on the side.

 

~

 

She had descended back down the stairs to the street behind the club. Alessa stepped out cautiously onto the street. The atmosphere was still quiet, but she knew they were still out there, waiting for her. It didn’t take long for the town to take effect. She heard the sounds of growling in the fog, realizing that the troubling creatures were already shuffling about in the fog. She began to run through the lingering layer of white mist in a frenzied rush, knowing that she had to stay ahead of these creatures. The sounds of footsteps pursuing behind her told her that she couldn’t afford to slow down, and she dare not stop and look back to confront whatever was following her. She thought she was in the clear when she heard the footsteps following her retreating, fading further back into the background.

It was then she heard the most horrible sound she had ever heard in her life – a sound of drilling and needles, and sharp tools too horrible to contemplate. She knew the sound and her heart sank as she realized that it was one of _them_. They were here – they had been pursuing her since the shopping mall, and now they were in the town. She didn’t even want to confront them, and she hated the thought of even touching it. She ran before she could even catch a glimpse of whatever was making the sound. She ran blindly, not really looking to any side and making the bare minimum effort to avoid obstacles. She brushed past something and realized that she had gone right past one of those needle creatures – her heart almost had a heart attack at being so close to one of them, and not even knowing it.

Fortunately, salvation found her at the right moment. Alessa ducked into the building on the right, just as the dogs were clamoring to grab a bite of her. The sound of something heavy hitting the door alerted Alessa that she had probably escaped being mauled savagely by mere seconds. Alessa listened for several moments to the sounds of the dogs trying to chew their way through the metal doors, until they slowly faded back into the town.

She was in the hospital now. Somehow she had found her way to the right place amidst the fog despite the lack of vision. The place was dark, and dingy. Looking around, Alessa frowned in distaste. It wasn’t as run down as Alchemilla had been, but it was pretty obvious the building was not properly taken care of by the staff.

The sound of heavy breathing filtered its way through the air. Alessa looked from side to side trying to figure out where it was coming from. She grabbed her sword in preparation for a fight. And then a nurse came from around the corner, carrying a rusted metal pipe in her revolting arm. The way she breathed raggedly and the way she moved relentlessly made it clear this was one of the town’s constructs. Alessa realized she wasn’t going to have time to draw her gun and shoot, with any measure of accuracy. She grabbed her sword and struck at the nurse, slicing into the flesh of the brutish monster. The nurse tried to raise its pipe, and it roared in agony as Alessa sunk her blade into it. The nurse never once raised its head to meet Alessa’s eyes during the entire confrontation, as if in some sort of zombified parasitized state. Alessa struck her again, and once more, striking it repeatedly until the nurse fell to the ground. Alessa raised her blade overhead and brought it down on the nurse’s body, wincing at the crunch of the body’s flesh as she ended its life.

Alessa sighed as she wiped her brow. Shit, this was a tough fight, and it was definitely on now in terms of survival. Alessa looked down and realized this monster looked far more human than any of the others. Her features were feminine, the body was lithe and feminine with a heavily stacked chest, and there was a bit too much lipstick smeared over her mouth, like a parody of a young woman almost. She reminded Alessa far too much of a real nurse, especially one she’d known. It was disturbing, and she almost felt like she had ended an actual life. Were it not for the pale deformed arms and the bloody uniform, one would have no idea that it wasn’t an actual human being.

The hospital was unnaturally dark around her, and there were plenty more of them around. Shit. She needed to be careful, or else they would ambush her when they had the chance. There had to be more than one of them around, that was a certainty. The question was how they would present themselves, whether all at once or one at a time.

Alessa had no clue where she would find Leonard. Where would they keep a guy like that? She had only one choice.

She decided to explore the hospital at her leisure, checking the rooms and offices one at a time to see whether she would find anything useful. It was a slow, tedious process, but she had no choice. She had no idea of the layout of a mental hospital, and this was one place of the town she was thankful to say she had never been in. For a moment, she wished she had a cell phone to keep in touch with Douglas, or a walkie talkie, but she scratched that idea. She hadn’t brought any from home, hadn’t even thought to bring one, and the last thing she wanted was to distract Douglas during a critical moment and serve him an injury, or worse. She was better off alone.

Alessa stowed away into an office. The check-in area was littered with items and in a state of disarray. There was a computer, but it appeared to be old and dirtied. Yes! Alessa barely contained her excitement, as she found a map. She rushed to take it. There were three floors in the hospital, and four if you counted the roof. She folded it back into her backpack, after memorizing the layout. Strangely, the reception area didn’t seem to be in nearly as much disarray as it could have been, now that she took a closer look; the computer was at least somewhat recent. She wondered if the hospital had been abandoned for a long time, or if this was just the dirtiness of the Otherworld.

There was another office that was open. She entered into the doctor’s lounge. There was a lot of stuff in the room, and it was stocked with bonuses including a refrigerator and a sink. Alessa wondered if there was any food in it. She excitedly hurried to check, but the inside was empty. Curiously, there was a note on the door. Food only! Do not store drugs! Huh. Alessa wondered if that included health drinks.

It was then that Alessa’s attention turned towards something else. There were a few files strewn about on the table, having carelessly been left lying there by some doctor, apparently. Alessa rifled through them out of curiosity, wondering what they were doing just lying around in a lounge? What kind of doctor left records carelessly lying around? Alessa looked through them with mild curiosity, wondering what kind of people were stored here. There were three patients in all in the records, each one with their own folder.

The first was of a young woman named Arielle Margolla, aged 26 years old:  
  
 _Suffers from extreme stress_  
 _with lapses in rational thinking. Unable_  
 _to function if deprived of companionship. Strong introverted_  
 _tendencies._

_Unusually close with parents. Appears to_  
 _have no sexual boundaries, in relationships with_  
 _adults. Seems detached from the world at times,_  
 _with little awareness of societal_  
 _mores. Quick to temper and exhibits_  
 _disproportunate retribution._

_Possible pyrokinetic abilities (?) – please verify_  
  
Hmm. _That sounds like me_ , Alessa thought, although she didn’t need to be in a mental institution. She was surprised at these scientists acknowledging the subject’s supernatural powers, since scientists usually liked to dismiss that stuff no matter what. But sometimes those manifested and blew up in the scientists’ faces, no matter what they believed. Poor scientists, trying to dismiss what they didn’t understand.

The second one was a man named Stanley Coleman.  
 _  
Stanley Coleman_

_Room S07._  
 _Usually passive and cowardly;_  
 _also egotistical._

_Sometimes shows and acts on_  
 _obsessive attachment to a_  
 _particular woman._  
 _This has caused violent incidents;_  
 _use caution._  
  
There was a third one, for a man named Leonard. Alessa perked up in excitement, as she realized this could be the Leonard Vincent was talking about! But there was an unpleasant surprise, as she pulled out the paper from the folders.

_Leonard –_

The paper was torn from the middle down, and Leonard’s last name had been crossed out. No useful information remained. _Damn!_ Alessa cursed to herself in frustration. That could have had useful information that she could have used. It seemed someone had been determined not to let Alessa see the information that was contained in the document.

And suddenly, a thought occurred to her. What if Claudia and her cronies had gotten to the papers first? What if they were combing through the building searching for Leonard so they could eliminate him before Alessa reached him? If the Order was trying to take Leonard out before Alessa could get to him, then she would have lost one of her only valuable sources of information, if she did nothing by sitting here. She had to hurry.

She saw that there was a white board near the entrance, apparently used by the staff there to write memos. There was a code written on it, written by a doctor of the facility. That had to be significant, somehow. She copied the code into her memory, and turned to go out the door. She knew she had a good memory, and she wouldn’t forget the code, no matter what anyone else said. Gathering everything that was useful in the room, she left to explore the rest of the hospital, on the lookout for nurses and anything else she may come across that she would have to bash with her sword.

She found herself inside a small office she had found unlocked. Even though she had to find Leonard, she had to check whatever areas of the hospital were open, to see if there was anything available that might lead her to where Leonard was being held. There was a table in the room, and a plant put there for decoration. Nice, but not particularly interesting. However, it was what was on the table that was the interesting part. There was a diary on the table. Next to it was a doll lying there, delicately crafted with personal details. And it appeared to be handmade. Alessa frowned. Were there kids up here? She felt sorry for any kids that had to stay at a mental institution. Then again, remembering the John Carpenter story of the trip he took as a college student, maybe some people needed to be there. Still, this didn’t look like the work of some disturbed individual. Aw, she could just imagine some kid working on this here to get away from their doctors, seeking solace from the boredom and treatments in this. It kind of looked like her, to be honest. The doll was of a long black haired woman. She wondered what the inspiration for the kid was.

She took a look at the diary.  
  
 _This day has finally come._  
 _That's right -- the day when you and_  
 _I will meet._

_I was always thinking of you,_  
 _here in this gloomy cell._  
 _I never even knew your name_  
 _or face until today._

_But now I know._  
 _I know you're the one_  
 _I've been waiting for._

_And haven't you been_  
 _waiting for me, too?_  
 _That's why you came to rescue me._

_Oh, how I love you, Heather._

_I want to give you my prized doll_  
 _I made to commemorate our_  
 _meeting, the start of this_  
 _everlasting love._  
 _Ah, I can already see your_  
 _smiling face._

_Stanley Coleman_  
  
Alessa tossed the diary onto the table. This was no kid. _Ew!_ She cringed internally, wincing at the content. This was a sick mental patient obsessed with a woman, and that woman was her. The diary said “Heather”, but she knew it was her he was obsessed with. The long black hair and the pale skin on the doll gave it away. Alessa shuddered internally. There was some sicko obsessed with her out there and he could somehow see into her life. How did he even know her, anyway? She didn’t recall ever meeting anyone named Stanley Coleman in her life, at any point. She had clarification as she realized that must be the same Stanley the file had been talking about in the doctor’s office. She gripped her gun comfortingly, knowing there was a psychopath out there and she might have to use it. She didn’t care how obsessed this guy was with her, or how much he proclaimed to “love” her. One attempt by a potential rapist was enough, and she didn’t care to see another. And she knew from her dad’s experiences with law enforcement that these guys didn’t give up easily when they set their mind on something.

Alessa left the room with some hesitation. Suddenly she wasn’t nearly as comfortable, and the thought of someone waiting for her out there was enough to make her shudder. She tried to put it out of her mind, and concentrate on what was her self-appointed task, which was finding Leonard. She had to find Leonard, and she couldn’t afford to waste time standing around here, even if she was afraid of what was lurking around waiting for her out there.

Hopefully this wouldn’t take long.

 

~

 

She was on the second floor. She didn’t know why she had gone up there first. Something inside her just told her to go there first. When she got to the patient wing, Alessa already knew there was trouble. There was a white large poster on the wall beside the door, and that only meant another obstacle for her to overcome. Alessa growled in frustration, swiping at the air with her handgun. Why couldn’t this place just leave her alone? It was bad enough that she was here to look for a maniac, but now she had to deal with their stupid riddles too? Fuck this place, and the gods who ran it.

There was a table in the hallway up against the wall. And sure enough, there was a diary on the table, along with the thin doll. Alessa approached it warily, unsure of what she would read this time. She was beginning to fear seeing that doll, and what it signified.  
  
 _You may not yet have realized_  
 _your own true feelings._  
 _But you sense them unconsciously._

_And so you're trying to get_  
 _closer to me._  
 _That's a virtue, the path to Paradise._

_If the door's locked, open it._  
 _Use the password for_  
 _the prison gates._  
 _Doctor... I've forgotten his name._  
 _Anyway, that quack has it posted._

_He should be here, too._  
 _I mean, 4 numbers would've been_  
 _good enough, but he kept on going._

_Isn't it a shame? I'm not there._  
 _Aren't you irritated?_  
 _I long for you, but you're so cruel._  
 _Still, I want you, Heather._

_Stanley Coleman  
_  
 _Ew!_ Alessa shuddered as she read the diary. She was not aroused by this. She did not sense any feelings for this author, and how this creature who was writing this even thought so was a mystery. She was going to resist this with everything she had, if it wasn’t plainly obvious to him, and she would have thought her not taking the diary would have been an indication. How he supposed that she had feelings for him and was simply toying with the affections of this man was beyond her. What did she say? How did he even know her? And the more important question was the obvious one. Who was this guy? Alessa shivered as she thought of some creep stalking her around the hospital, skulking in the shadows while her vision adjusted to the darkness. But no, she was sure she would have seen him if he was around searching for her. Was he even alive? Or was he a ghost who had died, and was now trapped in the hospital replaying his memories from his old life? Alessa shuddered if it was some supernatural being stalking her through the hospital, and not just some psychopathic creep. A regular creep she could handle. A ghost was far more difficult, and deadly, to deal with.

She looked at the board on the wall.  
  
 _The first is larger than the second;_  
 _the second twice the third;_  
 _the third smaller than the fourth;_  
 _the fourth is half the first._

_Four of the numbers_  
 _are not repeated_  
 _Three are not in the top row_  
 _Two are not in the right row_  
 _One of the numbers is the final key_  
  
It didn’t take Alessa long to figure it out. She did the numbers in her head, wrote some things down, and before long she had figured things out. She entered the code and gained access to the second floor patient wing. Now for the first time, she started to wonder if the doctors were the ones who were wrong in this place. She had thought it was the town placing the riddles in her way, but what if it was the doctors who were messing around? What kind of sick doctors locked every door in the place with keys from riddles that could only be opened by searching around for clues? She was glad she wasn’t the one who had to stay here, with these crazy doctors and nurses. They were probably all twisted bastards anyway.

It was probably better not to think about it.

 

~

 

The monstrous forms ambled out of the darkness, wielding pipes and a furious intent. The shaking nurses moved in a parody of lifelike movement, ambling about in the darkness like a puppet being manipulated by a set of strings, and the puppeteer was a twisted criminal trying to set them against her. They paid no heed to whether their victim was armed or not, simply intent on tearing her to shreds. There was a considerable distance between them, which unfortunately was already playing against them. That gave her the time she needed to carry out her action, and act she did.

Alessa lined up her targets along the sight of her gun, closed her eyes, and fired. There was a thunderous noise as the heavy ammunition struck their targets, blowing a hole straight in the bodies of the nurses. The flash lit up the room in the darkness, and it was like a mini light suddenly lit up the air for one moment. The noise was deafening, and Alessa almost had to cover her ears in response to the noise. The one nurse dropped like a stone in response to Alessa’s first bullet, and her second bullet took out the other nurse easily just as cleanly. The nurses twitched for several seconds, but they soon stopped with a sickening crunching sound. She stepped forward once it was safe. Alessa surveyed the damage her single handgun caused, wide eyed with a subdued sense of awe. Wow, she had seen the effect outside when she shot the dogs, but the fog and atmosphere blocked most of the impact in her eyes. Seeing the unobstructed view plainly out in the open in the hospital made her realize just how powerful this gun really was. Shooting at targets and shooting at living, breathing creatures were two very different things, that was for sure. Now she knew she had made the right decision in bringing this gun; it was exactly what she needed against the creatures here, populating this town.

She hadn’t found anything of notice on the second floor. There was a man’s corpse in the examination room, but there was nothing noteworthy about it, and there was a suitcase lying on the bed in one of the patient rooms, but there didn’t seem to be anything of interest about it. There weren’t even any hints or clues laying around, as there usually were with such things. For all intents and purposes, it looked like an ordinary suitcase.

Coming back to the elevator, she found out there was a bottle of nail polish in the women’s locker room, but nothing else of note. She didn’t even know why she had gone to the second floor first. It was just a gut feeling, one of the many she had, that there was something significant there, but she guessed she was wrong. She supposed she would have to go back and unlock the first floor.

She didn’t even know why Leonard would be here. This place was abandoned, wasn’t it? Unless he had crossed over here, from the real world. But why would he be here? It wasn’t like he was central to the functioning of whatever Claudia was planning; it was pure coincidence that Vincent had sent her to him to gather information. While he was central to gathering information, Alessa didn’t know why the Otherworld would take an interest in him.

If anything, it would serve the Otherworld better to keep him out of here in the real world, so that Alessa couldn’t get to him.

Ah, it was all so confusing! Her brain was starting to hurt. Alessa felt a headache coming on, and she immediately moved to forestall it. She felt lost, like she had no idea where to go.

She decided to go downstairs. With no other options available to her, she didn’t have any choice. The third floor was locked, and unlike with the 2nd floor entrance, she didn’t have any clues as to how to open it; the code she had with her didn’t work. Taking the elevator down, she headed towards the patient wing. She entered the code she had gotten from the board, and sure enough, the door clicked open. Alessa grinned widely to herself, although she had to wonder about the purpose of the lock in the first place, as she examined the keypad. If the codes were just left lying around by the doctors on any old place, then what was the point of it all? Anybody could get in, after sneaking around into the doctor’s lounge! It made no sense.

Perhaps it was better not to think about it.

 

~

 

The specter was roaming the town, traversing the area of the accursed dwelling. It was how she spent all of her time nowadays. The state in which she was in now could only be described as undeath. Today she was in Brookhaven, when she noticed something unusual that caught her interest. She saw a dark haired woman enter the hospital, apparently on a self-appointed mission from what it looked like. She was immediately intrigued – no one had entered the building in three years. She immediately followed the woman, hiding behind her as she went up the floors. The hospital was darkened and hard to navigate, but that seemed to be no obstacle for the woman. She strode confidently through the area.

The woman examined every useful part of the hospital that she came across. Something about her seemed familiar, and the specter couldn’t quite put her finger on it. She didn’t know why, but it was the strangest feeling that she had seen this woman before. She couldn’t help but follow her, and she felt a blush tinge her non-existent, non-corporeal cheeks as she did so. This wasn’t something she normally did, and yet she couldn’t help the attraction that she felt to this strange new visitor. Maybe it was just the lack of something else to do.

As she did so, she recalled to her mind the events that had brought her life to this. Once again, she couldn’t believe that she had ended up this way, though she supposed at least it was better than not being aware of anything. When caught between a town that tormented her, and a world that could no longer support her existence – what other choice was there? She was what she was, and there was no changing that. Her lot had been played out, and there was no way to change that. She felt sorry for herself often, as she usually did, but other times she just wished she could fade away, into nothingness. Nothing happened. Her consciousness was still in time, ceaseless, at least for the moments she could remember, and not the few ones where she seemed to lose track of everything, in a mysterious mist that clouded her mind.

As a restless spirit roaming the town, she now had the chance to observe the people unlucky enough to step into this “Otherworld”. It was depressing; all of them were tormented people who usually met gruesome ends on their journeys. Combined with the memories of her own murder, the specter wished the devils behind this madhouse would just end her miserable un-life already.

But she knew they never would. They were little more than depraved monsters, feeding off torment and grief like parasites. You were little more than fodder once you got here, whether you realized it or not. 

She had taken to spending most of her time in Silent Hill’s two hospitals. It was a compulsion born out of having her life destroyed by one of them. Today she happened to be in Brookhaven, the mental hospital of the town. Unlike Alchemilla, she had no tie to this place. But she could have, had she not been killed. It was disturbing seeing the remnants of mental illness in this place, and the specter knew she had been well down that road herself, before her death. Drugs and extreme stress didn’t bode well for one’s brain. 

The specter was roaming the first floor when she saw her: a beautiful young woman with long black hair, dress in casual clothing. She carried with her a medium-sized knapsack, and was armed with a big gun that looked deadlier than the ones the police used. The term “bad ass” came to the ghost’s mind. Being invisible, the woman didn’t notice her as she investigated the accessible rooms, picking up any useful items or documents that she found. She seemed to be searching for someone in particular, though the specter couldn’t figure out whom.

However, there was something else about her that made the spirit take notice. Whoever she was, this girl seemed familiar somehow. Yet the spirit was sure she had never seen her before. Maybe it was just her imagination playing tricks on her from the loneliness, but somehow, she didn’t think so.

Looking at the door, the silent wraith saw where the woman had stopped. Great, it was the glue board room. Most of the rooms had unique names in her mind, but this one was one of the creepier ones in the hospital. Some of the patients had created a rather…interesting puzzle. She herself had seen the items, and her face flushed in embarrassment as she remembered how she had tried to pull one out, unsuccessfully. How that burned her with shame, at the time.

Concentrating, she shifted into her physical form. She felt the tingling spreading all over her body, as the air shifted around her and her molecules solidified into something tangible. It was something she didn’t do often, since it made her as susceptible to pain and death as if she were really alive. Right now, though, it was something the situation warranted. She felt the woman behind the door with her senses, and decided to go right in, not wary of what would happen if the woman tried to shoot her; she didn’t care, after all.

Alessa looked down at the odd sight before her. She was in room C4 of the first floor. She had explored a bit of the first floor and found a few useful items, but nothing too extraordinary. She’d walked into room C2 and walked right back out. There were three nurses in there, which meant Alessa definitely didn’t want to deal with them all at the same time at this time. She’d almost had a heart attack. Being trapped with all of them, getting maimed or worse, it made Alessa shudder at the possibilities. She shook her head. Now she was in a patient room layered with scattered debris and overturned mattresses. Alessa looked down at the wall of dough next to the bed. Someone had built a wall of some sticky gray material, and then proceeded to stick things onto it. There was a bug, a key, a Christmas card, a toothbrush, and even a cookie, all positioned on the board with an unbreakable force. Alessa couldn’t even figure out how to get the items off, in case she wanted to eat the cookie. Not that she would do such a thing, mind you.

She sighed. She was just going to have to figure out how to break the key off from there, somehow. The key was valuable, but it was definitely stuck. Alessa knew there was no way a key was just going to appear in the middle of nowhere without being valuable, and she wouldn’t put it past the town to put the key in this unbreakable obstacle before her, to taunt her mercilessly.

She was about to head off, to try to figure something out, when she heard the door knob start to turn. Alessa started to aim her gun, but the turning of the knob didn’t sound like one of the frantic motions of the nurses. It seemed, in fact, to be more of a human gesture. Alessa stepped forward in caution. Was this the Order members that were hunting Leonard down in the hospital?

The woman stepped into the room, wearing an expression that was somewhat a cross between a frown and a look of bemusement. She was obviously puzzled at the intruder’s presence here, though she only stared at the person across from her. The woman was wearing a red sweater with an old fashioned nurse’s outfit underneath, and high pumps that lifted her several inches from the ground. She looked like a relic of a bygone era, though she didn’t appear to notice it herself. The woman caught notice of her alarmed stance and eased into the conversation. “Excuse me, I need to talk to you. Don’t worry, I’m not here to harm you,” the woman held up her hands in a disarming gesture, and she assumed a kindly voice that gently sought to reassure her. “I’ve been following you for a while now. Who are you?” she asked, the sharp curiosity prominent in her voice.

Alessa stared at her in shock. “…Lisa?”


	17. Ghosts of the Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Disclaimer: Silent Hill belongs to Konami.**
> 
>  
> 
> **AN:** There are some new fics up in the Vignettes story! They've been added to the main body, so they're not in the next chapter. I know it doesn't look like it, but the story has been updated. It's in "Pictures of You", for those of you who forgot. So, check it out, and let me know what you think! ;-D The second vignette may seem like it has nothing to do with Silent Hill, but it all fits into the big picture, trust me! I want to show scenes of Alessa's normal life, in addition to her time in Silent Hill. Or, an activity related to Silent Hill. (Such as researching it, or combating Walter Sullivan.)
> 
> This chapter is primarily to show that Lisa is intelligent, not just some _clueless blonde_ that _services_ Kaufmann. *Ew* I get tired of the dumb blonde jokes, not particularly with Lisa, but with regards to blonde women in general and male characters. Of course, Alessa doesn't know that Lisa used to service Kaufmann, so that should be quite fun to have her find out. ;-) *smirks*

**Chapter 14: Ghosts of the Past**

**Brookhaven Hospital - Part 1**

 

Alessa stared at the woman in disbelief.

The blonde woman’s face twisted into befuddlement. “How do you know my name?” Lisa asked, with great curiosity present in her voice.

Alessa didn’t dare to believe this was happening. This was impossible. Lisa was dead. Dead. There was no way she could be here. This had to be an illusion, or a dream. She tried anything and everything to explain away the sight in front of her, but the woman remained standing before her, and the radio wasn’t sounding off in her pocket.

“I…uh…I just…” Alessa stuttered for an explanation, searching for something, anything to say. What on Earth could she possibly say to verify her identity, that wouldn’t send the other woman into shock? She needed to make certain first. She couldn’t just give away her real info, in case it would prove dangerous to her.

Alessa forced herself to remain calm; she was trembling all over, but that couldn’t interfere with her concentration. She needed to remain certain of herself, in order to deal with this properly. It wasn’t until then that she realized, and a traitorous little part of her mind whispered, _what you hope_ , what she was thinking.

What, make certain? Verify? Lisa was dead. This was a trick of some kind. It had to be.

She just couldn’t…

“You didn’t answer my question,” Lisa stepped forward, crossing her arms in front of her. She had a stern expression on her face, like she was interrogating Alessa, and Alessa shivered. Lisa was tough, or she could be when she wanted to be. “Who are you?” she asked, in a clipped tone. She was patiently waiting.

“Uh…ah…” Alessa swallowed, searching for some way to answer that.

Alessa resisted the urge to run up to the woman and hug her as tightly as she could. She certainly looked the same, but Alessa knew for a fact this couldn’t be Lisa Garland. She couldn’t. Lisa was dead. She was murdered years ago by the director of the hospital in the central part of town. Alessa stared hard at the pretty blonde, trying to pick up the slightest trace of anything that would give her away as not being human.

The longer she spent fighting the monsters she encountered on her journey, the more she had grown accustomed to them, in more ways than one. Not only was she used to their tactics and their grotesque appearances. Somehow, she was able to sense them as well. Alessa wasn’t sure how to explain what she felt around them, other than a stirring of some sort at the back of her consciousness; some vague combination of fear and revulsion.

She didn’t feel that here, though. Not in the least.

And yet, she couldn’t be sure. She hated herself for thinking that way, because this was a dream come true if it was real, but she just couldn’t be absolutely sure that this was the real situation happening.

She supposed she should be sad that Lisa had forgotten her, but she just couldn’t find it in her heart to be so. Lisa would have forgotten about her by now, and Lisa had never seen her mature self face-to-face. And there was a big difference between 14 and 20. A big difference. Lisa had no reason to remember her. In another life, Alessa might have reacted immaturely and been angry at Lisa for not remembering her, but here Alessa knew it was only natural that Lisa wouldn’t recognize her.

That didn’t make it less hard to deal with.

Alessa rolled the possibilities over in her mind, trying to gather her thoughts. She didn’t even know for sure who, or what, this person really was. There was practically no limit to the illusions and supernatural phenomena one could experience in this town. For all she knew, this…being could be yet another creature sent to torment her, hidden under the guise of her old nurse. After all, she herself had created a duplicate of Lisa six years ago, when she unleashed her full power on this place.

And yet…

She looked and sounded so much like her. Was it possible she was who she said she was? Were this any other place, Alessa wouldn’t have believed it possible. But this was Silent Hill. Anything was possible here.

Lisa looked closely at the young woman across from her. There was something off about the young woman talking with her, that she couldn’t quite put her finger on. She knew the other specter in the place, Stanley Coleman, was also following the young woman through the place, and Lisa found that quite odd. She knew that Coleman was obsessed with a particular woman, which was recorded in his records; why would he be so focused on this woman, if he was obsessed with someone else?

Lisa stared deeply at the young woman in front of her. Suddenly, she was reminded of an individual she had crossed paths with long ago. She remembered long black tresses, and hair tied back in a pony tail, which she had seen in a photo. She remembered bandages, and pain, and suffering, burning, drugs, and a whole host of other unpleasant things she didn’t care to recall. But there was compassion there, too. It wasn’t all doom and gloom. And most of all, she remembered a little girl desperately needing her help, yet Lisa being completely unable to help her. She herself had needed help during that time period, and she never got it.

Lisa stepped closer to the young woman. She placed both hands on the side of her face and stared closely, though thankfully the young woman didn’t respond violently. Lisa stared closely at her, trying to discern any trace of an identifying feature. And suddenly she saw the same lines of the jaw and delicate features she once saw in a photo, only more mature, and seasoned. She saw dark chocolate eyes that looked hauntingly familiar, and a nose that Lisa always thought was cute, if only the person lying on the bed had been able to wear the face in the photo, and not a mangled facsimile of it. And that wasn’t the only thing she saw. She looked clearly into the woman’s eyes, and saw something that she had never dared thought she’d see: Recognition. The pair of eyes spoke of immeasurable pain and sadness, a sadness Lisa was certain she had encountered before. And suddenly, Lisa took a deep intake of breath as she knew exactly who this was, and the consequences hit her full force like a ton of bricks. The world fell underneath Lisa Garland, as her stomach plummeted to the ground.

_No…_

“Alessa?”

_It can’t be…_

Alessa looked up at her in recognition. “Lisa?” she dared to ask hopefully.

She scanned frantically with what was left of her senses, trying to discern any trace of an abomination from the town. There was none. There was only the woman standing in front of her. This was really her.

“Lisa!” Alessa cried. She enveloped the nurse in a huge hug, gripping her arms around her tightly. Lisa threw her arms back a bit, taken aback by the surprise. Alessa began to cry, overwhelmed by the sheer number of emotions starting to grow inside her. She couldn’t help it, she was just so overcome by all the sadness and happiness, and surprise and gratitude, and amazement, and all of the other things she couldn’t hope to describe. She lost control, letting herself fall prey to the emotions overtaking her and bubbling up to the surface underneath her bruised exterior. And suddenly the floodgates opened. Alessa sobbed loudly in the embrace, leaning her head against Lisa’s body as she sobbed against the woman who had taken care of her for so long six years ago.

Lisa didn’t know what to do at first. She had never been accosted by someone who was in such profound need of comforting before. This wasn’t just a crying spell, this was a full breakdown, years of pain and suffering coming to the surface in an unstoppable force of sentiment. But Lisa was good at comforting people. Gradually her arms settled around the girl, drawing her close. Awkwardly she patted the girl’s back, touching her in a comforting series of gestures. “It’s okay…” Lisa whispered softly. “It’s okay…” she told her. She felt almost like a mother in that moment, in a way, comforting a crying child, who was more than a little devastated or hysterical. Lisa was always good at comforting people. It was, perhaps, her one great flaw that had broken her, that she cared about others too much, even at the expense of herself.

Besides her addiction problem, of course…

When Alessa finally pulled away, she looked worse for wear definitely. “I’m sorry. Ugh…ah…I ruined your shirt,” she said, looking at where a huge wet spot had formed on the shoulder of Lisa’s uniform from Alessa’s salty crying. She felt embarrassed; she hadn’t expected to lose it like that. She just couldn’t help it. This was a happy thing; to have Lisa here! And yet, she felt conflicted, because of all the things they had suffered together. She wiped her nose a bit, feeling a bit mortified about her impromptu breakdown.

“It’s okay,” Lisa laughed a bit; it wasn’t exactly like it was going to get any worse. She was a walking aberration, and the ‘uniform’ was a part of her as much as her hair overall. There was no changing or improving it, it was just the thing she manifested when she became ‘solid’ in the material world.

Alessa pulled back, and stared at Lisa lovingly with adoration in her eyes. It was obvious that she was dead. She was obviously a spirit or a specter of some sort, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was that she was here, with her. And she was awake.

As Alessa pulled back, Lisa was finally able to ask the question that had been on her mind. “Alessa…h-how…?” she started to ask, overwhelmed by the sheer impossibility of it all. How was it possible that her old patient was here, alive and well, and all healed up? It shouldn’t have been possible, but the evidence that was standing here before her was all of the proof that she needed of it.

_Uh-oh._ Alessa should have seen this coming. Alessa knew that she had some explaining to do. Normally, she didn’t like telling her complete story to a stranger, but this was one case in which she was gladly willing to make an exception. This was after all, no mere stranger – this was Lisa, her one source of light throughout that dark time in her life. And Lisa had been through so much of it, as well. She owed it to her to give her a rational explanation, and tell her the whole truth.

She gave a shortened version of her story, covering everything from her earlier teenage years to her most recent, telling her about her dad, Cybil, and her mother. She left out some of the more gruesome details, reasoning that Lisa didn’t need to know exactly how Julie died, or Cybil, in her current unbalanced state. Lisa had been through enough, without adding to the list of horrors with this. She summarized everything that had happened recently, with Douglas and Claudia’s attack, until she got to the latest part, with her coming to the town. Alessa felt a great burden lift off her chest, she had to admit, telling someone else of her complete ordeal, who wasn’t a stranger she had just met. She looked at Lisa with pleading eyes, hoping Lisa would just accept her story and not think that she was crazy.

“Wow, that’s quite a story,” Lisa said, softly shaking her head. She couldn’t believe it. Alessa had been through so much, and yet Lisa knew somehow that it was the truth. Incredulous and confused as she was, as incredible and astounding as it sounded, there was no other possible explanation for Alessa’s presence here. She had to believe her.

“So, I need your help,” Alessa said, breathing a sigh of tiredness. “I know this key has to be important, but I don’t know how to get it out. I have to find Leonard…but I don’t know where to start. I don’t know where he could be. I have to find him before the Order reaches him. This whole hospital is deserted. Please, Lisa, I need your help. Anything you could tell me, any info you would have, would be very valuable,” Alessa pleaded, hoping the nurse understood how earnest she was. She couldn’t do this alone. She needed some guidance, and she now realized that it hadn’t been a good idea coming here alone, without Douglas. She should have waited until he finished checking out Leonard’s house, and then the two of them gone together here to the hospital.

“I don’t know what this stuff is made of, but I think the thing holding it down is just glue,” Lisa said, running a finger down the side of the key. She considered it. “Some nail polish ought to take that right off,” Lisa said off-handedly, offering what she hoped was one alternative. It wasn’t an ideal solution, but it was a cheap one, and hopefully an easy one to implement. There had to be some nail polish somewhere in this town, and the deserted ruins of the buildings. It wasn’t a particularly difficult problem to solve, but then again, she wasn’t the one who was interested in the key. To her it was just a curiosity.

The young woman was shocked. “Nail polish?” Alessa asked, eyes widening. “I found some in the nurse’s locker room upstairs!” she said, kicking herself mentally over such a stupid mistake. She had been so close! “We’ll have to go back up and get it,” she said, making it clear Lisa was going to accompany her. There was no choice in the matter.

Lisa smiled at her; Alessa’s enthusiasm was contagious. “It’s commonly known that nail polish dissolves glue. You didn’t know that?” she asked curious, giving Alessa an inquiring look. Honestly it was surprising to her that another girl wouldn’t know that. Then again, given her circumstances, perhaps Alessa was more…sheltered, than she otherwise would have imagined.

Alessa looked down ashamed, feeling her face warm. “Uh, I, uh, don’t have any nail polish,” she said quietly. _Or lipstick, or makeup, or any other type of beauty item, save for hair spray_ , she thought with some embarrassment. The only thing she used was lip gloss, and that was only because she had to. She felt incredibly self-conscious, standing next to Lisa. Even while dead, Lisa was beautiful. She was perfect, and her hair looked so incredibly smooth. Alessa looked grungy and worn out, like she had been battered by something at every turn. Her clothes were dirtied, and her general aura was radiating exhaustion; she felt incredibly self-conscious standing here next to this statuesque woman, in this messy, sweaty state.

“Oh. Really?” Lisa didn’t know what to say to that. Seeing the disheartened expression on Alessa’s face, she decided to change subjects. “Well, I’ll help you find it!” she said cheerfully. She didn’t know why Alessa would be so self-conscious about this all of a sudden, but it was obvious she had touched a nerve. The best thing was to move on.

Alessa smiled at Lisa, taking in her enthusiasm. She could always count on Lisa to cheer her up; she didn’t know the nurse that well, but just the thought of Lisa was enough to lift Alessa’s spirit most of the time. “Let’s get going then,” she said, pulling herself out of her funk. They had bigger things to worry about, than her lack of self-concern for her appearance. She wasn’t that bad looking, it was just that next to Lisa…she let the thought trail off. She felt her face warm a bit. Why was she thinking of that now, when they had such bigger concerns to worry about? She shook her head to clear away the thoughts.

She gathered her stuff to prepare to leave. There was one thing she had to do before that, though. Now that Lisa was with her again, she had to do everything possible to safeguard the nurse, no matter what. It didn’t matter that she was dead, Alessa didn’t want her to feel any more discomfort or pain than was absolutely necessary. She didn’t want her to disappear, or whatever would happen to her if she was killed in this state. And she had a feeling the town would not grant her a second chance after this, if she failed to keep herself safe in Alessa’s presence. The town would probably block her from ever appearing to Alessa again, now that she knew who Alessa was. It was sadistic like that. She owed it to Lisa; Alessa owed it to Lisa to keep her placid and ‘healthy’, if there was even such a thing here in this place. Lisa had taken care of Alessa, once. She had to take care of Lisa, and ensure that nothing happened to the nurse on their little journey through this place, assuming they were in it for the long haul.

There were no guarantees; Lisa could just as easily disappear at any moment, given the town’s capricious nature and unpredictability. But Alessa couldn’t afford to think that way. She had to act as if Lisa was here to stay. She couldn’t imagine that Lisa was going to go down like every other thing in her life, as a fleeting moment of happiness, before it was cruelly taken away. She deserved more than that, she knew it, regardless of what the Order preached.

“Lisa, can you use a gun?” Alessa asked. She pulled out the handgun she had found in the shopping mall, which she had replaced with the much stronger options after the subway, up until the recent debacle in the office building. She had kept it in case she lost her Magnum, and needed some way to defend herself. The gun was weak, but ammo was plentiful and it would probably be a very good possibility for a beginner. And combined with her Magnum shots, it would probably create a hail of bullets that would be impenetrable to the enemy. Lisa didn’t need to have a strong weapon that was overwhelming, she just needed to be able to fight alongside Alessa. And if God forbid, they found themselves separated from each other, Lisa would be able to defend herself. At least until Alessa got to her. It went unsaid that Alessa had no intention of letting her out of her sight. She offered the retrieved firearm to the nurse, holding it out in her hand.

Lisa looked alarmed. Her eyes widened. “Uh, I don’t know, I mean,” she stumbled. She had never fired a firearm a day in her life. The thought of using one against a living being was abhorrent, to say the least. Lisa was not a violent person, usually. There was only one person who had awakened Lisa’s violent side, and that was Kaufmann. She was unsettled deeply by this situation to say the least, and suddenly she found herself shifting uncomfortably in her shoes. She couldn’t seriously be expected to suddenly know how to operate a firearm after one minute, could she? Was Alessa seriously expecting her to shoot along with her, while they took on whatever was out there? She was suddenly very uncomfortable, and she didn’t know how to say it to Alessa. She didn’t want to be in a fight, and she didn’t want to attack beings who were…possibly just like her. She was nervous, and she was dubious about the whole thing, to say the least.

“Hey, it’s easy. Just point and shoot,” Alessa smiled, giving her a reassuring look, although a little uncomfortably. She knew she was asking Lisa to kill, and that wasn’t something one asked someone lightly. “Against human beings, you would need a lot more tactics, but these aren’t human beings. They’ll dive right into your attacks, and all you have to do is shoot them,” she said, trying to reassure the nurse. It was a bit more complicated than that, but hopefully Lisa would pick up the basics soon enough. She took on a bit more seriousness on her face. “Just don’t go shooting me by mistake,” she frowned, as she chuckled a bit uncomfortably. It was a very real possibility, and joke notwithstanding, she needed to have Lisa realize what she was shooting at, in the midst of the action. “And I suggest you don’t look at the blasts from my gun. The muzzle flash from this thing will blind you,” she said warningly to Lisa, conveying what someone else, and many varied people most likely, had learned the hard way.

Lisa smiled at her, but inwardly she was shaking with nervousness. “Okay,” she said, and tried her best to sound nice, like she wasn’t bothered by this at all. She was downright terrified, but Alessa was clearly counting on her. If it meant so much to Alessa to have Lisa’s support on this, then Lisa was going to try her best not to disappoint her. This was the first human contact she had had in six years, at least for more than a few minutes, and she didn’t want to give that up, as selfish as that sounded, even if she barely knew this girl. She needed this.

Alessa gave her a serious look. They had to leave. They couldn’t dawdle around here forever; they had to go and carry out their mission. “Okay, let’s go,” she said, letting out a weary breath. Lisa nodded in response, and Alessa was reassured that she and the nurse were on the same page on this. For now, at least. She took her gun and began heading out of the hospital room. They had a patient to find.

She was tired and weary to her bones emotionally, but at least now she had an ally to help her in this. She just hoped it paid off in the end.

Lisa dutifully followed her out of the patient room, armed with her own gun in hand.

 

~

 

The sounds of gunfire and bullets connecting echoed in the long hallway. The monsters came out of the darkness and were eager to draw blood from their victims, only to be met with a hail of resistance. Alessa and Lisa found themselves in the west corridor of the 2nd floor. They had retrieved the nail polish quickly after arriving, and then Alessa decided now that she had some backup, she could go back and explore the second floor. There was the strangest feeling she had missed something there the first time around. She didn’t know why, but there was the feeling that there was something important there that she had forgotten about. The hallway had once again gotten full of nurses, but now there were two of them to combat them and they were armed. The nurses came out of the darkness, ready to beat them with pipes and scalpels and who knows what else. Alessa and Lisa fired their guns simultaneously, firing off a multitude of shots. Lisa shot several times at the nurses approaching them, downing one of them. She looked to the left to see Alessa readying a shot, and she closed her eyes as Alessa fired her massive handgun at a nurse, taking her down in one shot. The sound was thunderous in the room. Alessa fired at the other remaining nurse, and she fell down in a heap. Lisa felt a bit uncomfortable firing on the nurses; she didn’t want to think about what they really were, and how much they were really like her. No, _not like her_ , she told herself; she was nothing like them. They were mindless monsters, acting without thinking. She knew exactly what they were, and it wasn’t anything that was close to her. She had a mind, she had… _had a soul_. _They were spirits_ , the thought went unbidden in her mind. She ignored it. Finally the last nurse fell down, and the room was finally clear.

Alessa wiped her brow with her forearm. “Whew, that was a bit of work. You did some really nice shooting there, Lisa,” Alessa smiled at the nurse. She had handled it like a pro, even though she was really only pointing and shooting at whatever was in front of her. She was surprised, but comforted the nurse was actually going to be a big help to her. She felt secure that Lisa could handle herself – and she had to admit, she’d had her doubts.

Lisa blushed at Alessa’s compliment. “Thank you,” she said, although she wasn’t sure being complimented about killing things was really the best way to feel good about herself. In fact, she felt downright uncomfortable about it, and she felt a little bit of gut-wrenching nausea that she had killed other living beings. She had gone from being a dead spirit roaming around the town to making other creatures into dead spirits, that would now roam the town. Was this what awaited her now that she had reunited with her old patient? But then again she had to kill them, or else they were going to kill Alessa – the rational part of her mind protested fiercely, and she tried desperately to believe it. Still, it was disturbing. She decided not to dwell on it. It was something that was better left unsaid.

Alessa sighed tiredly with confusion. “I know there’s something here. I was so sure that there was. My senses are telling me that all over, but I just can’t figure it out,” she groaned, throwing her arms out in a huff. She sighed to herself, maintaining her calm demeanor. Maybe it was a stupid idea. Maybe there was nothing left here, and it was just her imagination playing tricks on her. She certainly hoped so, in a way. It meant that she could finally walk away from this part of the hospital, and move on to something else. She’d hate to think her senses were failing her that badly.

_Hmm_. “What else did you see on this floor?” Lisa asked calmly. Her arms were crossed over her chest.

Alessa considered it. “Well, there was a room with beds, where I found some helpful things, and there was a morgue with a body in it, although there was nothing interesting about it, it was dark…” Alessa trailed off. She couldn’t think of anything particularly noteworthy that she had missed. The rooms were vacant, the morgue held nothing interesting about it, except for a body she didn’t want to check out up close, and the hallway was derelict with threadbare sitting places except for the nurses that occasionally popped into it. She just couldn’t think of anything she had missed that was simply important, or else she was going blind.

That caught Lisa’s attention. “Wait a minute. You said there was a morgue. Was there a man with a tattoo in it?” she asked frantically. She couldn’t help it; they finally had a valuable lead.

“Uh, yeah, I think,” Alessa shrugged, doing her best to hide her visible confusion. She didn’t see why that was important, and why Lisa was excited all of a sudden.

Lisa’s face was serious, and determined. “Come on,” she said, taking Alessa’s arm and guiding her towards the morgue.

A burst of confusion ensued. “Huh? Where are we going? Wha…why here?” she asked confused, wondering why Lisa was dragging her like this all of a sudden. What had she missed?

Lisa dragged her all the way to the morgue. The man’s corpse was still there on the stretcher, with his arm hanging out to the side from under the sheet. Alessa wondered what was so important about it: surely an important clue wouldn’t be buried in this decaying piece of flesh, would it? That thought was disgusting and revolting on several levels, and she hoped the town wouldn’t sink so low as to place a clue on an actual corpse. Ugh, she shivered just thinking about it. She didn’t want to get closer to it, but it seemed she had no choice. She looked to Lisa for guidance and got a patient look in response. “Look at the arm,” Lisa urged her.

Alessa went right up to the corpse: it was best to get it over quickly. She grabbed a hold of the corpse and realized that there was indeed a clue on the arm! “The start time is my key,” Alessa read aloud. What the hell does that mean? She wondered. The start time – what were they referring to? And what else needed a key in this place? They already had the nail polish to get that key off the plaque, and the method to get into the third floor, presumably. “What does that mean?” she asked the nurse, wondering if there was something she was missing. She just didn’t get it.

Lisa contemplated it. “Hmm…” The nurse crossed her arms over her chest, holding her delicate chin thoughtfully with her fingers.

It was obviously a riddle of some kind, that much was clear. This place was used to its vague riddles, Alessa thought, and once again she found herself getting frustrated.

The nurse spoke up. “It sounds like a time riddle, based around some kind of object in the hospital,” Lisa said contemplatively. She had understanding cross her face, as she turned to the girl on her right. “Alessa, were there any items in the rooms that showed you the time? Clocks, watches, things like that…” she said suddenly, looking to Alessa for an answer.

Alessa was shocked. “What?” she asked surprised, looking shocked at the nurse’s sudden insight. Could it be that simple? Suddenly, she recalled something. “Wait a minute. There was an alarm clock in one of the rooms and there was a suitcase on the bed, but it didn’t seem particularly important. There was no note around it or anything, like the kind I usually find,” she said, sounding like she was making an excuse, but she wanted acceptance from Lisa. No tatters lying around, no diaries from that maniac Stanley Coleman even…how was she supposed to know it was important? For some reason, it occurred to her that she just didn’t want Lisa looking down on her, or coming across as dumb or airheaded to this woman, because she couldn’t solve one little riddle. She wanted to impress this woman, as ludicrous as that sounded. Why should she care? They were in much more dangerous situations than worrying about a little embarrassment. But she did care, and the reason was so obvious that Alessa didn’t dare to voice it. What would Lisa think? She wasn’t sure at all, and now wasn’t the right time to bring up the subject.

The nurse stirred. “Come on, let’s go,” Lisa said, rushing to move towards the door.

Alessa moved to follow her, but suddenly she hesitated. There was something that was occurring to her now, and she couldn’t let it go without contemplating it.

Lisa noticed that Alessa wasn’t moving. “What’s wrong?” she asked, looking at Alessa with a worried glance.

Alessa was completely still where she was. “Who was he?” she asked, her voice full of curiosity and a solemn mindset.

Lisa knew she was referring to the man on the stretcher. It wasn’t something she expected from her, but she answered anyway.

“He was found on the grounds here. They don’t know where he came from, nor I,” Lisa said, thinking back to what she had picked up. “He had a tattoo and a suitcase with him, but not much else. They didn’t know what to do with him, so they confined him in one of the rooms here. I don’t know what he thought of it,” Lisa said, recalling what she had ‘seen’. It wasn’t something she explained often, but she was sometimes able to pick up on what was going on in the other world simultaneously, or what had gone on there in the past. It was like a burst of images, or momentary flashes of insight, seeing the pictures in her mind. “That’s all I know, I swear,” she said, being honest with Alessa.

A thoughtful glance. “And they didn’t even try to find out who he was?” Alessa asked, thinking of people who mysteriously popped into places from out of nowhere. Her father’s friend John called it translocation – the disappearance of people from another dimension into this one, although what the dimensions the people were from were like was unknown. It was a wild theory, and one of the pet theories he was always pursuing. Whether or not there was any truth to it, Alessa didn’t know; Alessa wasn’t an expert on that, or heavy science for that matter.

Then again, he might have just broken into the hospital from the town. Everything didn’t necessarily have to have a supernatural explanation.

The nurse shared her view on it. “He had no identification on him. It wasn’t exactly a concern,” Lisa shrugged. She didn’t see why it mattered. The corpse was long dead.

A disgusted scoff. “Lovely bedside service,” Alessa said sarcastically. Lisa found herself a bit angry with Alessa’s comment – she was only supplying information, not directly responsible for what happened here, damn it; but she let it go. She knew Alessa wasn’t really angry with her, just at the callousness and indifference of the doctors that worked here on a daily basis. Getting angry at Alessa wouldn’t solve anything, and they needed to stick together in this place.

Lisa wanted to leave, but then she noticed that Alessa still wasn’t moving. “What’s wrong?” she asked, getting a little concerned about Alessa. What was it about this place that was bothering her so much?

Alessa didn’t move at all, staring at the floor. “That could have been me,” she said, focused on the thoughts running across her mind. She looked at Lisa. “If I had ended up alone, when the Order tried to exploit me…if my dad hadn’t gotten me, or if Cybil wasn’t there…and I had nobody to vouch for me, and the Order was able to convince people…I could have ended up in here, committed to the hospital. And no one would have believed me. Being tortured every day, drugged up 24 hours a day…” Alessa said, trailing off. It was a sobering thought. She could have ended up as a mental patient here, committed to the hospital and restrained. The thought of how close she had come to being one of the unfortunate collection here sent shivers up her spine, and she tried to push it out. Probably getting raped every day too, by the male and female staff, she added. It definitely wasn’t something she wanted to think about.

Lisa put a hand on her shoulder. “You’re okay now. That didn’t happen, and you don’t have to worry about that stuff. You’re not going to be put anywhere you don’t want. Come on, let’s go,” she said, offering her an out. She understood Alessa’s reservations now, but that hadn’t happened, and there was no reason to think about it. Bad enough that she had spent much of her life burned on a hospital bed. A mental hospital was a different tale. Lisa knew the types of things that went on in these places. The thought of that girl she took care of being confined to a mental hospital, and being abused by the staff every day, was disturbing on several levels, and she was surprised how much she cared. Being a young girl with a good body, Alessa would be a prime target of the male staff in the place. And even if she could defend herself against them, she couldn’t defend herself from all the male patients. Lisa put it out of her mind. No, she couldn’t think about that now. It hadn’t happened, and that was that.

Alessa smiled at Lisa. “Thanks. Come on, let’s go,” she said, moving to leave the room with the nurse. Because Lisa was right. That hadn’t happened, and she didn’t have to think about it. She didn’t know why she had allowed herself to be drawn into that train of thought.

The troubling room was left behind solved, with nary a thought as to its implications.

 

~

 

They had ended up in one of the hospital rooms. Lisa stood out of the way while Alessa explored all of the objects available in the room. Almost immediately, they noticed something that definitely stood out among the throng. “This wasn’t here before!” Alessa exclaimed surprised, as she noticed a certain diary lying on the bed. The object had seemingly appeared new out of nowhere, just as she could have predicted. Alessa sounded like she was trying to justify her statement that there was nothing there previously, but the young woman would have been surprised to learn it wasn’t necessary. The nurse believed her that there was nothing there. The mattresses were overturned, the floors were dirtied, and the room just looked like something out of a disaster area. Lisa wondered if it was in the same state in the real world, or if it was just the manifestation of things in this world? The hospital was in sad shape, but in a way it reflected the state of the hospital staff and the mental patients here, rather than just being a random disaster.

Alessa approached the briefcase laying on the bed. The alarm clock was positioned on the nightstand behind it, and sure enough, there was Stanley’s familiar diary sitting nearby on the bed. Alessa took the diary in her hand and started to browse through it. Once again, she wondered why this mysterious patient was leaving her these diaries, when it was obvious she had no interest in responding to them.

_There was a tattooed guy_   
_on that rumpled bed._   
_Not any more, though._   
_That alarm clock and filthy bag_   
_are his._

_Ah, but don't misunderstand._   
_I haven't done a thing._   
_I didn't hate him,_   
_though he was a liar._

_Shall I write something of my own?_   
_On my chest, since I can't cut it_   
_open to show you my heart._   
_"I Love Heather"._

_No, something a bit more forceful._   
_"I Love Heather" isn't enough for_   
_what I feel._   
_Oh, what tender emotion_   
_this image brings..._

_Stanley Coleman_

Alessa set the diary down on the bed. She shuddered in revulsion: god, he wouldn’t quit, would he? What was it about her that had him so fascinated, and why wouldn’t he leave her alone? Did he really expect her to respond to him, after how creepy he’d sounded in the diaries? And the way he spoke about that man, he had no compassion whatsoever. Did he really think she went for guys like that? She set it out of her mind, focusing on the immediate problem instead. The diary certainly confirmed what they had suspected all along, that it was a time based puzzle they were dealing with.

“Yes! I knew it was a time puzzle,” Lisa said, sounding very self-satisfied.

Alessa looked at where she was staring. Lisa was staring at the clock, which was stuck at a certain time. There were varied buttons on the briefcase, each containing a digit that one could roll. Alessa knew this already and so the clock had to be relevant. The nurse was showing some great enthusiasm for her quests in here. She wondered if it was for her benefit, or if the nurse really was excited about the prospect of being able to help her. Either way, Alessa appreciated it. It kept her mind off other things, like what her mission was, and what she had to do. Seeing Lisa so excited, it was a new thing for her. She smiled a bit in happy appreciation.

Alessa looked at the diary sitting on the bed. “Who is he?” she asked, turning her attention towards the nurse. The question lingered in the air, and had been doing so for some time.

Lisa frowned a bit in response. She knew Alessa was referring to Stanley Coleman. “He’s a patient in the hospital. I don’t know much more than that,” she said. Actually, it was a lie: she knew exactly who this man was and knew every exact detail about what he was doing here. It was just that Alessa would be disturbed if she knew the truth, and that he was a phantom that Alessa could do nothing to stop if she wanted to.

Lisa walked over to the bed and picked up the diary. She skimmed through the pages, backtracking through the previous entries as she took in all the minor details and read through every word. Her eyes narrowed, as her mouth settled in a grim line. She set the diary down, as her mind adjusted to the new circumstances.

“Alessa, don’t meet him face to face, all right? If he shows up here in the open, don’t meet him face to face. If he starts bothering you, just tell me,” Lisa said. She might have been overreacting, but suddenly she couldn’t help it. She herself was disturbed by what she was reading in the diaries. Alessa could defend herself pretty well, but the thought of Alessa being pinned down under his stronger form as he ‘loved’ her, being unable to do anything except settle back as he did what he wanted with her, was disturbing on several levels. He may have been dead, but Lisa knew very well the dead can still reach you in this place. Her own experience, and the fact that she could actually talk to and touch Alessa, was a grievous enough example. She didn’t know why she was suddenly feeling so protective of the girl, but she was. Memories of being pinned under Kaufmann assailed her, similarly in that same position, and she had to try to fight them back. That was back then, not now.

Alessa stirred. “Lisa? I can handle him, you know,” she said questioningly. She raised an eyebrow, wondering if she was hearing everything right. Was Lisa really becoming worried about her? She was armed to the teeth. Why would Lisa be concerned about her? Unless, and she hopefully thought it was, Lisa was beginning to care about her too. She would have wondered if she was hearing things, but the overly concerned tone in Lisa’s voice told otherwise.

There was a protest. “I know, but…” Lisa trailed off, not knowing quite how to explain herself. She just couldn’t let it go, no matter what her brain was telling her. Realistically, she knew Alessa was more than capable of defending herself, but she was just so worried about this girl.

Alessa smiled. “Lisa, I’ve got it,” she said smiling. Alessa felt overjoyed that Lisa cared for her, but she also felt a little torn. She appreciated that Lisa was concerned about her, make no mistake, but she knew how to defend herself! Still, she appreciated the fact that Lisa was worried: it showed that she cared.

Lisa breathed a deep sigh. Pause. “Okay,” Lisa said, reluctantly. She wasn’t going to fight Alessa on this. She was a grown woman. Alessa was armed with multiple weapons, and she knew how to defend herself. She would just have to hope that Alessa would be dealing with this adequately, and had the situation in hand.

“Come on, let’s see what time this opens up to,” Alessa said cheerfully, getting off the subject. She picked up the alarm clock, which read a very specific time. “8:03?” she read aloud. There was a reason that number seemed important, but she couldn’t figure out what it was. She set down the alarm clock, and went over to the briefcase. She picked up the leather clad object, and entered the time on the four buttons on the briefcase on the front. Immediately there was a click, and Alessa was excited that it worked. They had guessed right, after all. Alessa popped open the lid on the briefcase, and awaited in anticipation to see what lay inside.

Alessa lifted the object that was inside carefully with both hands. “A camera?” Alessa asked, holding the object carefully in her hands. This wasn’t what she expected.

The camera was old, and looked like it hadn’t been used since the 70’s. It was one of those old Polaroid style instant cameras, which allowed you to see the picture quickly after taking it. It still had some film in it, judging from how it sounded when she shook it slightly. Alessa admired the craftsmanship of it, but otherwise there was nothing to suggest it belonged anywhere even remotely in the hospital.

“But we have the key from downstairs. What am I supposed to do with this?” Alessa asked, holding the object out in one hand. She was in amazement and confusion at the discovery inside the briefcase. All of this work for one camera?

And yet, there was obviously a purpose to it. Alessa just didn’t know what that was, yet. She waited helplessly.

Lisa had her chin cupped thoughtfully. “You’re obviously expected to photograph something,” she said thoughtfully, staring at the ancient looking relic in Alessa’s hand. She thought further about it. “That key you have downstairs doesn’t look like it’s for one of the hallways. In fact, it looks more like something for the basement, or the roof.” She snapped her fingers in sudden insight. “I bet if you just tried to use that key by itself, you wouldn’t have been able to get into the third floor,” Lisa said, putting the pieces together. She was quite pleased with herself at solving the puzzle so easily, to be honest.

Alessa groaned in exasperation. “Okay, let’s get it over with,” she said. It never ended, she thought. No matter how far they went, the town kept throwing more obstacles in front of her. It was almost like a game, she decided, except from the minds of the most twisted game makers possible.

Still, they would need to find out where they were supposed to utilize the camera in the first place. She supposed they would find out soon enough.

Lisa didn’t say anything, although she was seemingly smiling in amusement at Alessa’s antics. Maybe she sensed that Alessa was getting tired, but she wasn’t quite bold enough to say it. It was easy for her, Alessa realized. To her this was a game, running around and solving puzzles and gathering clues. She didn’t really have her life on the line, like Alessa did hers.

She was almost tempted to take a picture of Lisa, but somehow she held off the temptation. Knowing the circumstances, either Lisa wouldn’t show up, or else she would be shown as some kind of gruesome monster. Even if she was a spirit able to talk to her and act nicely with her, dead was dead, and such things tended to mess up the process on film cameras.

Alessa sighed tiredly. Best to just suck it up and get it over with. The sooner she got this done, the sooner she could track down her target and get the hell out of here.

They left with nary a word, determined to find their next subject. There was something waiting for them in here, but the problem was they had no idea what it was. Still, they couldn’t help but feel they were getting closer. Lisa knew she had to keep Alessa’s spirits up, and the way to do that was to distract her from how confounding some of the things here were. Hopefully she could continue to offer some help, despite her limited experience. It made her feel…useful.

 

~

 

They had retrieved the key from the patient room. Just like Lisa had said, it had popped right off once Alessa used the nail polish. Well, not exactly ‘popped right off’. Alessa had to struggle a bit to pry it off, which was embarrassing, considering the nurse was three feet away, and she even used her boot. She strained a bit, which almost had Lisa asking if she was all right in concern, but she kept her mouth quiet. Finally, it did pop off. Alessa held the key aloft in her fingers like a trophy smiling, savoring her victory. While she basked in the glow, Lisa smiled at how goofy she looked. The first floor was still deserted, although they decided not to linger in the region too long. There was no telling when they could be ambushed at any time. They still had the sense of something watching them in the halls, but there didn’t seem to be any visible danger. Maybe it was just their imaginations. The recovered items now in hand, they were now searching for where to use them. This place was large, but they were limited in where they could go, and it had to be somewhere nearby. Settled down as they were, they could afford to think clearly and take their time.

Lisa decided she’d waited long enough.

There was a particular question she wanted to ask Alessa. It was the question that had first burrowed its way into her brain from the moment she first realized who Alessa was, and what she was doing here.

They were walking along in the second floor. It had kind of become their home base, since it was the only place they were assured not to get ambushed, and the other places were too tight to maneuver easily.

Lisa stopped Alessa in her midst, putting a hand to her forearm. The other girl looked at her in surprise.

“Alessa, wait!”

“What is it?” Alessa asked.

Lisa decided to take the plunge. She had helped Alessa, with her goal and the obstacles she was encountering here. Maybe now Alessa could help her a bit.

Alessa waited with an expecting expression.

Lisa took a deep breath. “Alessa, can you get me out of here? I can’t stand being in this place anymore, after so many years in here,” she said, secretly pleading with the girl to answer in the positive vain. She couldn’t stand it anymore; she needed to get out of here. She didn’t want to sound too desperate, but she needed Alessa to help her. It was about the only chance that she would ever get, and Lisa wasn’t about to pass it up.

Alessa looked at her. “Lisa? What do you mean?” she asked. She had a vague idea of what Lisa was asking; but she needed to hear the nurse say it. Was Lisa really asking if she could take her away from the town? If so, that was crazy.

Lisa remained patient. “I’m sick of being stuck here, Alessa. I need to see what is beyond this place; please, can’t you help me?” she asked, pleading with the girl to understand. It was a desperate act. She knew there was an afterlife beyond this, and she wanted to see it, but with the gods blocking the path it was impossible for her to move on. But with Alessa in her corner now, maybe she could finally leave this hellish existence, once and for all.

Alessa set her mouth in a frown. It sounded like Lisa was asking if she could release her soul from this place. Alessa hated to be the bearer of bad news, but her heart broke when she realized she had to give Lisa the obvious answer. She knew some things about this place, but these were gods, and she didn’t know a lot of things about this place and how they functioned. It was true she was powerful, once. But she wasn’t a God, and it had been a long time since she was a priestess of the Order.

“Lisa, I’m sorry. I don’t think there’s anything I can do,” Alessa said, genuinely regretting the words. It wasn’t something she ever wanted to tell Lisa, but it was the truth. She didn’t want to sugarcoat it. Alessa didn’t want to lie to her, and she wasn’t going to. There was no point in lying to her, and Alessa didn’t want to get her hopes up when she had no idea what she was doing here. She just didn’t know enough to help her, and even if she did, she didn’t know if she would be able to given the circumstances. That didn’t mean she didn’t care, however. Seeing Lisa again here had brought her a peace she had never known, especially in recent times with all the horrible occurrences in the past 18 hours. It was nice to know that at least one part of her past here was unsullied and intact, even if Lisa was technically not alive. In fact, it made Alessa contemplate what she would be doing after this occurrence was over. That didn’t change the situation, though. Lisa was dead, and there was no bringing her back. Still, it was something. She had a friend here, something to hold onto and cherish, which was more than she could say for her mother at that point. And that led her to a stunning realization. It surprised her to know that she was prepared to stay here, if it was for Lisa’s sake.

It was a subject that held no doubts. Alessa liked Lisa, and she was prepared to spend the rest of her life in this place, if it meant she could keep Lisa company. It was better than going back home and being alone. It was a terrified thought honestly; for the rest of her life, she added silently. She knew how crazy that would sound to most people, giving up her life for a dead woman. Still, she was looking forward to spending time with Lisa, if it turned out that she couldn’t leave this town, and it was looking increasingly likely that that was the case. She wasn’t giving up on life, she was just being realistic about what her best prospects might be, after this was over. And that was keeping a dead woman company. She couldn’t take Lisa out of this place, but she could make the rest of her afterlife here in this place very pleasant, if she did say so herself.

Lisa’s face turned into something nasty. “So you’re not even going to try to help me?” she asked incredulously in a soft tone, looking at the girl across her with the first hints of betrayal. Her face shifted into outright anger. “After all I’ve done for you. I took care of you, Alessa. I fed you, changed your bandages, cleaned you up… I died for you!” Lisa shouted, her voice stinging with the tones of righteous anger. Alessa was taken aback at her upset reaction. And Lisa continued. “And you’re telling me you can’t find it in yourself to summon even a shred of sympathy for me?” she demanded, staring at Alessa with hardened eyes, as though she was demanding an answer immediately.

“Lisa, I…” Alessa started to say, not knowing what to say. She was rather frightened now, to be honest. But Lisa interrupted her.

Lisa was shaking her head. “I can’t believe it. You’re one of them. You’re just like all the rest of them, who come here to this town and promise to do things for you, and then never deliver on it!” Lisa said venomously, glaring daggers at the girl across from her, with all of the indignation she could possibly summon. Then, she reached a decision. “Then, fuck you! Fuck you, Alessa!” Lisa shouted, screaming at Alessa in outrage and defiance of the worst kind. The sudden explosion took Alessa completely by surprise, and she took an awkward step back: was Lisa going to hit her? It was disturbing, and she almost found herself reaching for her gun, before she remembered that it was the nurse, and she couldn’t possibly hurt her; she’d never forgive herself if she did.

“…Lisa, I…” Alessa tried, but it was no good. Lisa suddenly took off running, and before Alessa knew how to respond, she had disappeared around a corner with the sound of a door being unlocked somewhere. Alessa stood there puzzled, baffled as to the sudden turn that events had taken. It was bizarre, and not at all what she expected.

What the…? What the hell was that? Alessa wondered. The explosion had come out of nowhere, and had taken her completely by surprise. She had never seen Lisa that angry before. She had gotten flashes of her arguing with someone, but never to that extent. It was disturbing, to know that her sweet little nurse was capable of such rage, and Alessa almost felt that she was being seriously criminalized for committing some irredeemably mortal sin.

And suddenly her own rage began to grow. What the hell? What right did Lisa have to accuse her of any of these things? It wasn’t like she wanted any of those things to happen. Alessa never meant for any of these things to happen, and she was entirely helpless in the situation. It wasn’t like she would have been able to stop them: she was lying comatose on a bed for god sakes! And Alessa was helpless to do anything to bring Lisa back, no matter how much she may have wanted it. She wasn’t a God, or a miracle worker. Hell, she was probably going to kill herself after this was over! She didn’t deserve that, and it was completely unfair of Lisa to pour all of those accusations on her like this. There was only so much she could do. She wasn’t invincible, damn it, she was…it…

The rage lingered there in the background. She tried to tell herself that it was all she needed, that she didn’t have any reason to feel bad about what Lisa said, but the truth was there was something sadder that was being concealed under the anger. Alessa had adored Lisa all those years ago, and to have the nurse say all those awful things to her without any thought to her feelings whatsoever left her shaken, despite her best attempts. It hurt, damn it. Her stomach felt ill just thinking about it.

She was left seriously confused, wondering what she should do next. Would she ever see the nurse again? Or was this just one of the illusions the town imposed on her, and that she allowed herself to fall into? She cursed herself for doing so if it was the latter, but somehow she didn’t think so. Something else had happened here, and it wasn’t just the town playing a trick on her. She knew it; there was more to this than met the eye. Somehow, a feeling in her gut told her so.

Alessa looked at the corner through where Lisa had vanished from the corridor. She would be back, Alessa knew it. The nurse hadn’t taken off permanently, and this was just a little tantrum on her part. Somehow, she knew it. She would encounter the nurse again, and they would have words then when they met. Until then, there was nothing Alessa could do but wait, apparently. Alessa hated the thought, but it was so.

Very well, Alessa decided. She would show Lisa that she didn’t need her. She had been doing just fine without her, before she came along. She would get through the hospital just fine and find Leonard, and complete her objective here without any help from the nurse whatsoever. And when Lisa saw that there was nobody else in this hospital to keep her company, nobody who could even see her, she would come begging back. She would be sorry she said all those things to Alessa, and Alessa would ask what the hell was up with exploding like that. She wasn’t a child: she didn’t need hand-holding to get through a tough situation like this all the time.

Emboldened with new purpose, Alessa stepped out the door to proceed with her assignment. Douglas was counting on her. She was off to find Leonard, and she couldn’t allow something as trivial as a nurse’s little feelings to interfere with that. She had something more important to do, and anything else could wait until the end of that. She told herself that firmly. Maybe if she told herself that enough times, she would believe it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **AN: Yes, Lisa's a bit of a b*tch here. Don't be too hard on her. ;-)**


	18. Specters of the Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Disclaimer: Konami owns Silent Hill. 'Though they don't appreciate it... ;-)**
> 
>  
> 
> **AN: Kudos to you if you can identify who the monster at the end is.**

**Chapter 15: Specters of the Past**

**Brookhaven Hospital/? - Part 2**

 

Alessa walked down into the basement area of the hospital. It was creepy down here, she realized, as she surveyed the area from around the corner. She crept down the stairs, shining her flashlight around the deserted corridor.

She had come here after solving the latest series of riddles. After Lisa’s impromptu little meltdown, Alessa had spent the next several minutes trying to find the door the key belonged to. She tried every door in the building, until she finally discovered the right door that the key belonged to. Sure enough, it was the basement and the roof, just like Lisa said. Alessa tried to ignore the fact the nurse had been right, despite her attitude. Alessa still resented the nurse for leaving her here alone, and running off like that. It wasn’t that Alessa needed her for anything; Alessa didn’t need her for this. She was just afraid to be alone here. It was creepy, and it was getting creepier by the minute.

“Hello?” she called out to the atmospheric hallway. Nobody answered, of course. There was nobody here to answer. But she had to try anyway, just in case there was somebody here. There were only two places to explore, the roof and this, and she really didn’t want to go up there right now. There was a weird sound coming from somewhere. Alessa thought it sounded like a squeaky wheel. She raised her firearm and turned the corridor to try to find out what the odd noise was. It was close, whatever it was. It had to be. She could practically hear it next to her ear. Alessa stopped short when she saw it.

An overturned wheelchair was lying in the middle of the hallway. It was turned on its side, and looked to be a much older model. A solitary wheel was spinning on the machine, ceaselessly revolving at a high speed at first. Alessa shivered: something about the sight was unsettling. Because the wheel spinning meant that _someone_ had been occupying it recently. Alessa shivered at the disturbingly creepy sight. It was obvious that the wheelchair had been occupied until recently, and yet there was no one else around. Alessa was confused. Where was the person who was on it? The wheel continued to spin, as it slowed down really gradually, until it stopped.

Alessa carefully approached the wheelchair. The air was frigid in the basement, and it only added to the disturbing atmosphere in the corridor. The wheel had come to a stop, and was now lying still like some kind of ominous warning. Looking closely, Alessa saw that there was a pool of blood on the seat. Alessa’s heart fell to the bottom of her stomach. Where was the person who was on it? And looking past it, Alessa saw that there was a trail of blood leading away from the chair. Alessa’s heart froze in her chest. What the..? She shuddered, as the atmosphere suddenly felt very unsettling in this frigid place. The blood was leading to somewhere, and she didn’t want to know where. And that wasn’t the only thing. Looking closely, Alessa saw that the wall was riddled with bullet holes. Where had they all come from? She looked back and realized that there was something shiny lying on the floor near the beginning of the hallway. Going back to the beginning, Alessa saw that it was a sub-machine gun of some kind, and she had missed it when she originally came down here! She picked up the weapon and held it experimentally in her hand. It was a simple sub-machine gun of some kind. The chamber was empty, but it seemed simple enough to use. Unfortunately she’d have to find some ammo for it, if she hoped to make any use of it. She shuddered at the damage it could inflict on something, possibly a human being, if she was not careful. And suddenly a thought occurred to her. The gun was all fine and all; she needed more weapons in order to defend herself. But if this weapon was here, then where was the person in the wheelchair…?

Alessa went back to the blood puddle. She knew she had to follow it, if she wanted to uncover the mystery behind this. She followed the blood trail carefully, firearm at the ready in case there was trouble waiting. Her heart was hammering at a thousand miles per hour in her chest. She was almost sweating from the chill, and she was unable to hold her gun steady. The blood trail led into the elevator, rounding the corner into the still niche. It was a morbid sight, and whoever had been the result of this unfortunate mess was inside. Alessa had no idea what she would see in there, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to see it. She approached closer and closer, moving inch by painful inch, awaiting the seemingly inevitable discovery.

And suddenly Alessa lost her nerve.

No, she couldn’t see what was in there. It was…it was just too horrible, to think of a person like that, stuffed inside that elevator. She didn’t want to know what was in there.

Suddenly, she realized there was something more important than that blood puddle. She ignored the blood trail, carefully stepping past it without looking back. There were two doors here. One of them was locked, but the other was open. This had to be the solution to the puzzle of what she was supposed to find. She looked back at the elevator.

She shouldn’t want to look in there. It was only a horrible sight that was awaiting her. It was obvious whoever had been occupying the wheelchair was in there, and probably in a very bad, mangled state. She knew her curiosity was stirred, however, and it wouldn’t leave her alone until she settled it. Against her own will, she found herself taking step by slow step toward the elevator. Her heart was hammering in her chest. She had to look in there before moving on to the other rooms. The elevator doors were open in a slit, the darkness preventing anyone from seeing any details inside. Alessa shone her flashlight and looked inside.

_Oh God!_ Alessa backed away in shock. She really shouldn’t have looked in there. That would haunt her ‘till the rest of her days.

Alessa backed away from the elevator in a hurry, trying to keep herself from losing control amid her cold shaking. She put her hand to her mouth, trying to keep the contents of her stomach from rising upwards. Oh God, why did she look in there? This was stupid.

She had seen enough horror movies to know it was a bad idea. Why did she think she could handle it? Monsters and demons were one thing. Human gore and massive blood loss…was an entirely different story.

She was never doing that again.

 

~

 

Alessa surveyed the closet room that lurked in the basement. The room was full of junk. The shelves were crammed with junk, and mops, buckets, and mattresses were crammed into the small space in a scattered display of randomness. Her first impression was not an encouragingly positive one. Alessa frowned; what exactly was she supposed to find in here? She was beginning to think that she was mistaken, when she caught sight of something. Suddenly, she noticed there was a slight blood trail leading behind the farthest shelf. Alessa shuddered at what could be behind, remembering her previous experience, but this seemed different somehow. She tried to reach behind it, but there was no moving the shelf, which seemed permanently stuck to the floor. Suddenly, she remembered something she did have, and that was the camera! She pulled out the Camera Obscura – there was a thought, a creepy one, from her backpack and put it behind the shelf, reaching to see what was behind there. Holding it steady, she pressed the button and switched the camera on. The sound of the photo being developed alerted her that the process had been successful. She pulled out the camera and shook the picture to make sure it developed properly. Finally, the picture cleared. And Alessa was surprised when she saw it. It was a code! The numbers were clearly developed on the photo, scrawled across the wall in a splotch of blood. Yes! This was what she needed to access the third floor. And to think she almost hadn’t come down here, because of her fear of the basement. She felt that she was one step closer to finally unraveling the mystery behind this place.

She was about to leave, when Alessa suddenly noticed something that caught her eye. There was a slight opening between one of the shelves, and the line where the shelf met the wall. And unlike the other, this one looked like it can be pulled away. Alessa pulled with all her might, and finally the shelf began to move. Alessa was surprised when she saw what was behind the shelf. There was an opening behind the shelf. Alessa sensed the different atmosphere inside the hole, and she knew it led somewhere other than the hospital. Alessa knew she should go back to look for Leonard, and finish up her task in the hospital. The curiosity was too strong, however. She had to explore what was inside the hole, if only to make sure that she didn’t miss anything vital to her cause.

With some trepidation and holding her firearm, Alessa ventured perilously into the passageway. The opening cut into the wall was rough around the edges, and easily allowed for a fully grown adult to venture easily past the crevice. Alessa crossed the threshold, and surrendered herself to whatever was waiting for her on the other side.

The world was dark on the other side, and Alessa was taken aback as she realized she had come out in a completely different place from where she had been. Where – where was she? It was too dark for her liking. The air was frigid and moist in the tunnel, causing her to shiver and grip herself tightly in the foreign hallway. Alessa looked back and gasped, as she realized the opening she had come through was gone. She was stuck here. There were wooden boards on the walls, and they were glued together in a pattern that made the whole thing look like a crude cellar in a house somewhere. Alessa shone her flashlight, and realized that she recognized the details of where they were placed. Wait a minute. She knew exactly where she was. And the question was now one of how she could have possibly gotten here by herself.

There was no mistake about it. This was…this was Alchemilla.

Alessa was taken aback in shock. How in the hell did she end up here? What had worked to bring her here? The glance back revealed that the exit was indeed gone. There was nothing but a wall there now. She was on her own. The wooden basement waited ominously ahead, reminding her of things that she rather cared to forget. There was a damp smell in the air, one reminiscent of mildew and things that developed when there was no one there to still care for places like this. It was a smell of things one cared to forget, and where things one didn’t want were left to rot, much as many had been before. The darkness was overwhelming, and Alessa had to keep her flashlight on just to keep herself from being completely enshrouded in darkness. The atmosphere was the worst. The air was chilly, and there was the sense that something was going to happen soon, regardless of whether she wanted it.

Alessa slowly walked further into the corridor. She was holding her arms close to herself, and shivering from the bone-chilling cold in the air of the corridor. She ducked into the first door on her left, choosing to start the exploration of this place one room at a time. She knew she would have to explore the building above in order to find a way out, and if she was truly at Alchemilla, she would have to hike all the way across town to make her way back. Most likely she wouldn’t have to do that, though. If a portal had brought her here, then there was probably another one that would let her get out too. She just had to find it.

The room was exactly what she expected. Alessa immediately recognized the formation of memories reliving themselves when she realized the details, but they stopped. It wasn’t exactly like her room had been, though. The room was much more like a regular hospital room. It was clean, organized, and devoid of rotted walls. The room was dark, but she could still make out some of the details of the room. There was a bed in the center, large and spacious for a hospital bed, and there was a medicine cabinet in the corner of the room. There was an I.V. unit attached next to the bed, medical implements on a table, and a cabinet next to the bed holding a few patient mementos. Overall, it was as non-threatening to her as a room in this hospital could possibly be, despite the place being dark and isolated.

Gradually, however, figures began to form around the bed. Alessa blinked her eyes, to make sure she wasn’t seeing things, but no, they were still there. The figures were transparent, and seemed to be like a flashback from some movie, or ghostly images like the ones presented in films.

_Four figures stood in a circle around the bed, observing the still figure on it. Kaufmann and Dahlia were on either side of the bed, Kaufmann on the left and her mother on the right, while one doctor was at the head of the bed, and another doctor she didn’t recognize was at the foot of it. They seemed to be observing the patient lying on the bed, with a great deal of interest._

_The gray haired woman began to speak. “Everything is going according to plan. Sheltered in the womb,” Dahlia said._

_The doctor at the head of the bed disagreed. “But it’s not done yet. Half the soul is lost. That is why the seed lies dormant.”_

_“But what soul remains captured in that husk…is buried deep down in the subconscious,” the other doctor said._

_Kaufmann angrily interjected. “Are you trying to say it won’t work? That wasn’t our agreement!” he demanded._

_Dahlia tried to reassure him. “No, no. These are just stalling tactics. If we lend a hand we will be able to get power. Never fear. The promise shall not be broken,” she said to him. It was obvious that he appeared visibly angry, and she was trying to keep him from snapping at the other doctors. The gray haired woman smiled at the flustered doctor, and it was obvious she believed she had everything completely under control._

Alessa fought desperately the urge to move and swipe her weapon through those figures. She wanted to rush in and save the little girl on the bed from all the things that awaited her, but she knew that wasn’t possible. The girl was doomed to endure those events, and there was nothing she could do about it. Alessa once again fought not to shake with rage at the situation. How could her mother do that to her? People often asked her why she could love a woman who had only carried her to term, and didn’t share any blood relation with her whatsoever, as her real mother, and pretend like her real mother didn’t exist: she didn’t even look at her mother’s family tree. The truth was her mother didn’t deserve any compassion. Not after what she had done. The fact was as far as Alessa was concerned, all she had done was donate a little material, nothing more. She looked at the people and her and realized how they were looking at her. They were looking at her like an experiment. She was an experiment, a thing – something to poke and analyze for themselves, not a human being. She was an experiment, a curiosity; not a real live being. They had no soul for her whatsoever, and it was clear that they had never considered her a human being. She was just a piece of meat to experiment on, both for medical curiosity and to hearken forth their god.

…On the other hand, if she hadn’t gone through that, Alessa never would have met Lisa. Even despite the argument they had had, Alessa didn’t like that thought. On the other hand, Alessa preferred to think that she still would have met Lisa, somehow.

_The other doctor surveyed the patient lying on the bed. “But the power we could get now would be very weak; almost nothing. Unless we get the other half of the soul…” It was obvious he did not share her mother’s opinion on the subject, and wasn’t convinced of the plan’s effectiveness._

_The woman sought to reassure him. “We’ll use a magical spell. Feeling this child’s pain, it’s sure to come,” Dahlia said, seemingly not the least bit affected by their situation. She spoke with a devious tone, and it was clear she hadn’t lost an ounce of confidence in their plan._

_Kaufmann seemed strangely disappointed. “But that will take time,” he said._

The figures disappeared from the room. Alessa moved further into the room, examining the details with a careful eye. The room was clean, stripped down, and decorated in the barest of minimum touch required for a hospital room. There were no personal artifacts on the dresser, aside from a small picture frame which was blank on the surface. Alessa picked up the picture frame, but the photo had been torn out of it, and there was no trace left of what had once been there. She didn’t know whether to be relieved the room had no surprises for her, or disappointed in the lack of items and creatures in the room despite her own better judgment.

That was too real. It was almost like a movie, she thought. Seeing her own past play out like that, in solid form in front of her, definitely left her with an unsettling thought, in the back of her mind. What had they wanted to do? Did they seriously not see the damage they were doing to that little girl; were they so corrupt and moral-less, that they just didn’t care? They had wanted power, but in the end the costs of it were just thoroughly despicable, in Alessa’s opinion. No power was worth torturing someone for seven years, and leaving them to rot. Alessa wanted to rush in and strike through Dahlia with her weapon, but she held back, knowing it would be a thoroughly useless gesture. What was done was done. There was no changing it.

Why was the town showing her this? Was it simply to torture her, with glimpses of the past, or was there a more complicated explanation for it? She didn’t see how, because she wasn’t learning anything from this. She didn’t want to remember the past, as many other people did, or even accept, she just wanted to forget it.

She headed to the door without looking back. Outside, the area still looked the same as before. Alessa was thankful it had not changed to an Otherworld version of its regular self. It was dark though, and she needed to keep her flashlight lit just to be able to see a short distance in front of her. The chill in the air lingered in the atmosphere, enveloping her with a fierce cold right down to her bones. She could see her breath in the air, slightly from the condensation that had formed in the atmosphere. It was damp and cold down here, a horrible combination that smelled of mold festering in the dark basement for several decades, as far as Alessa was concerned.

There was a door at the end of the hall. Alessa hoped it was an elevator out of here, if she was lucky. Or at least a ladder leading up, one that she could climb out of this hole. A shadow moved in the dark. There was a figure at the end of the hallway. Alessa tensed, as shr realized that she wasn’t alone in the area. Was that Leonard? Suddenly, the figure revealed itself. A flash of white cloth flew by, garbed in a blue sweater, and the figure moved quickly in the darkness. The figure rushed at her, and Alessa put up her weapon to defend herself. She didn’t want to waste a bullet until she was certain she could hit it.

The figure charged at her, wielding some kind of weapon, and Alessa moved as she realized it was aiming at her head. Alessa reeled in shock, as she realized it was one of the nurses that had been parasitized at Alchemilla. She could see the mass of flesh on its back that was the telltale sign, and knew the hideous creature that lay inside. The creature struck at her with a furious cry, and it moved much faster than the previous nurses she had encountered in the hospital. She struck at the creature with her weapon, burying her sword in the flesh of the vicious, mutated creature. She struck at it with a chunking sound, and the creature tried to strike at her with a swing of its weapon, gripping its scalpel tightly in its hand. She struck at it again and again, slashing at its uniform covered flesh, until the creature gave a shrill cry and collapsed to the ground, and died with a hideous crunching noise that was disturbing on several levels.

Alessa backed away, breathing hard from her encounter. What was this? These were the monsters that had been at the Alchemilla hospital during her childhood. What were they doing here? She was doing everything she could to figure it out, but there was no way this made any sense. She had overcome this part of her life years ago, hadn’t she? Why would they be here? There was no way she could have crossed all across town in a heartbeat, to end up at Alchemilla. This had to be an illusion. Even the town of Silent Hill, messed up as it was so far, had limits as to what it had done. It hadn’t transported her halfway across a city, choosing instead to let her remain in the same locations she was, only their other selves. The thought went unanswered in her mind though, because she already knew it couldn’t be real. This was too real to be a delusion.

There was only one way to find out. She had to proceed forward. She found a small passageway behind the door at the end of the hall. She climbed up the ladder she found at the end of the hall, and made her way through the room that had secretly contained the entrance to her room in the basement. Once again she wondered how Lisa had managed to bring her meals down here. It was easier when she was hooked up to an I.V., but even so, bringing the I.V. down here and replacing it must have been quite a pain. Climbing down and up here, struggling with equipment, how did Lisa do it?

It must have been a struggle every day, physically and mentally. Not to mention, being stuck in that damp basement all day. Alessa wondered if there was anywhere else Lisa would hang out at, to escape the hell of that place. She hoped so, because otherwise it was just too tragic a thought. Alessa tried not to think about it. There was nothing she could do to change Lisa’s past, regardless of how much she wanted.

Alessa emerged out of the storage room. The area was dark, shrouded in shadows just like all the others. There was a corner nearby, around which presumably there was an exit. Suddenly, a figure rushed through the shadows, barreling its way toward her in a blind frenzy. The shadows made it difficult to see exactly what the creature was. Alessa was taken aback and gasped, as she realized it was one of the male doctors from Alchemilla, with that same hideous parasite on its back. The creature lunged forward with a grunt, as it swung its weapon at her. Alessa slashed at him with her sword, and seeing that it wasn’t going down, she pulled out her gun and quickly shot him two times, causing it to fall to the floor in a wounded mess. Alessa stomped on it to finish off the monster, wincing at the feel of its body under her boot.

Alessa stared at the body lying on the floor. The gruesome visage of the doctor stared back at her, reminding her of things she didn’t care to remember. It was disturbing, and their strength only added to their intimidating nature. Damn. She had forgotten that the doctors were stronger than the nurses in the hospital. Harry had found that out firsthand, when he encountered them at the hospital. Her father was even worse. Chris had hit them hard with him being an experienced combatant, and they had hit him back equally hard. The only one who had escaped unscathed was Cybil. Either she had not encountered them, she had not gone into the hospital, or else Cybil was just that bad ass, that nothing fazed her. She would have to be careful.

The presence of the doctor in the basement once again reminded Alessa of her questions from earlier. Why were they showing up in here in the hospital? It made no sense. She had dealt with that part of her life, hadn’t she? Even if she truly was at Alchemilla, they shouldn’t be in this place anyway. The hospital should be empty. The town only reflected things that you left unsettled or kept hidden, unless it was intentional on the part of the town to torment you with, so why were they showing up here? Perhaps that was the case. She had to admit, that made sense.

She turned the body over with her foot. The features on the creature reminded her far too much of Kaufmann, and the creature’s size was intimidating, too. She looked at that ugly set of features, the features that reminded her far too much of her great enemy, and a time she cared to forget. The darkness in the basement, the moldy smell of the air down there…these things had haunted her for the longest time, and they still refused to go away in some respects. How Kaufmann had imprisoned her down there… How he had destroyed everything and everyone around her… She felt the anger build. Alessa frowned at the emotions in her mind. She felt heavy all of a sudden. Alessa couldn’t help it. She shot the doctor in the groin once, with her handgun. She may have been wasting a bullet, but it was worth it to clear her conscience of the rage growing there, before it grew too strong.

She left the body to sit there, not giving it a second look. It wasn’t worth concerning herself over.

There was something thumping in the basement. Alessa supposed it could have been the generator that was in the basement, but somehow she didn’t think so. She shuddered to think what kind of monster was lurking under the hospital, or perhaps it was machinery of some kind. It reminded her too much of rusted metal, and dark expanses of nowhere.

She turned the corner, and found herself facing an elevator. She lit up with enthusiasm inside. Finally, she had a way out of here. The elevator wasn’t covered with a metal fence inside, so that was a good sign so far. She looked at the elevator panel and surveyed her choices. There were four buttons on the floor panel, ranging from the first to the fourth floors. She wasn’t sure about the first floor, and she knew the number four was considered bad luck in Japan; she also knew full well Alchemilla had no fourth floor, so far as she could help remembering. She was probably best off avoiding that particular floor. She didn’t know where to start, so she settled for selecting the second floor.

The elevator hummed as it made its way upward, inch by painful inch. Alessa waited impatiently, holding her weapon while wondering what awaited her in this new set of floors. The elevator seemed to go slower than usual, as if it was making some incredibly long ascent rather than just going up two floors. Alessa got a bad feeling inside. Finally, the ding of the door sounded painfully loud in the small chamber, and the elevator arrived at its destination. The lobby she encountered was unexpected, until she remembered the layout. This was only the prelude.

Alessa stepped out into a dilapidated hallway. There were several doors lined along the walls, and the paint had begun to peel from the walls from years of neglect. Alessa didn’t know where all of them led to, so she would have to take them one by one. These were rooms, but what was contained inside the rooms was a different story. And if that portal that brought her here was any indication, she would have to be careful. She didn’t want to end up all the way at the lake, and have to make her way up under cover of darkness.

She tried the handles, but most of the doors were locked. One patient room was open, and Alessa found some useful ammo inside, but that was it. Still, Alessa had to give a sad look at the dilapidated sight of the beds and room. It was a pitiful sight, and Alessa knew it had been equally bad when she was a child. How had she ever managed to stand being here, in any capacity? How did people manage to live here, going day by day in this horrid place? These places were awfully dusty, considering they were parts of a hospital. Was there literally no cleaning staff here, so that they could afford to have the rooms cleaned? Or was the hospital being allowed to fall apart, because of the lack of many patients available? It just didn’t make any sense.

Crossing the door into the second part of the hall, it was the same thing with most of the other doors here. It wasn’t until the last room in the hall that she finally had some luck. Alessa picked up the unusual ring she had spotted in the bedroom, laying on one of the beds. It was a beautiful gold ring with a ruby inlet, and shimmering branches layering the outer band of the ring. The ruby in the ring was deep red, and reminded Alessa of something very rare and precious; something valuable. Alessa found there was something unusual about this ring, but she couldn’t figure out what was off. Hmm. She wondered what use this ring would have for her, if it was part of some puzzle. She stuffed it in her pocket and decided to worry about it later.

She found some more useful items including a set of bandages and a health drink in room 202, but that was all. Alessa thought she was almost getting bored with the lack of activity, but she had to admit there was something quieting in not running for her life every minute, that was almost soothing. Still, she felt like something was lurking on the horizon, something big and dangerous that would test her; like she was waiting for the hammer to fall. She hoped she could handle it.

Alessa noticed there was a picture of a woman’s breast on the wall, warning for signs of cancer. It was ironic how they maintained a helpful notice to the general public, when so many unspeakable things went on here. Perhaps it was just to maintain the façade of a functional hospital; they couldn’t be seen to be a bunch of uncaring bastards, after all. The general public needed to see them as a good, working hospital. Even if it was just the leadership that was corrupt. They couldn’t do that and not have at least a few genuine medical warnings around, after all.

Alessa ducked into the women’s room. She had some business she had to take care of, even though she hadn’t eaten or drank anything since that morning. Thank god at least the bathrooms still worked. She knew how crazy that would have sounded to some people, putting her skin on some of these grimy surfaces, but she really had to go. There was no way she was going out in the open hall: that would just be nasty, beyond thinking. It also gave her a few moments to think. She appreciated being away from that nightmare for a little while. She wondered how often Lisa came to hide here, away from her torments in the hospital. Hiding in the bathrooms, crying to herself wondering where her life had gone, and what had happened to it. It was a lonely existence, she realized, having such a secret and being unable to confide in anyone. She hated them for what they did to Lisa, more than for what they did to her, almost. She wondered if that was when Lisa had started to hate her.

Alessa let out a deep breath out in the hall. She needed to go up to the third floor. That was probably where more clues would be waiting. She stretched her hands over her head, working out the stiffness in her body. She was tired, and she desperately wanted to eat something; not to mention, lie down and rest. This had proven harder than she expected. So much exploring, so much languishing around the town, and all for one man? Who might have a clue that could help her against the Order? It wasn’t worth it, in Alessa’s opinion. She knew the wider question was referring not just to Leonard, but her decision to come here and avenge her loved ones.

Still, she had committed to the course, and she had to keep going. If nothing else, Douglas would kick her ass if she made him wander all over the town, and then decided that she was going another way.

As she passed through the door separating the second part of the hallway, Alessa looked back at the nurse’s station. Lisa couldn’t possibly be there, could she? But no, the nurse’s station was locked. Alessa held back the twinge of disappointment. She didn’t know why she had been hoping Lisa was here, because they had some serious issues to work out between them. Anyway, it wasn’t a realistic thought. Lisa wasn’t here. She wasn’t ever going to be here; she was probably still over at Brookhaven. Still, why wouldn’t Lisa be here? This was her home turf, after all…it was one thing to be at Brookhaven, but she would have expected Lisa would be at the one place that was most familiar to her. Maybe…it was too painful. Maybe…Lisa wasn’t ever coming back here again…

She really needed to get to the third floor.

She went all the way to the end and took the elevator up to the third floor.

The elevator hummed as Alessa waited in patient anticipation. She wondered if the third floor would be deserted too, or if there would be something else waiting for her.

The small lobby she found herself in held nothing interesting. Alessa was about to leave, when out of the corner of her eye she noticed something. A magazine dated from 1993 sat on one of the benches. Alessa frowned: why would this magazine be here? Was the hospital stuck in the way it was when she was here during her childhood? Or was it just reflecting her thoughts, which were focused on Alchemilla and her past currently, formed from that? She walked past it.

The doors opened to a darkened hallway. Alessa could see into the expanse of details, but it was still somewhat dark compared to where she’d been. Alessa cautiously stepped forward, surveying the area with a sense of cautious exploration. The place was already looking brighter, due to her eyes adjusting to the lack of strong visibility in the area. Something shifted in the shadows remaining, and the footsteps sounded on the tiled floor across the hallway. She wasn’t alone here. Alessa readied her sword and her handgun, waiting for the attack in whatever shape it came. It didn’t take long. They emerged from the shadows, three of them, hunched over and wielding sharp knives in their hands. They rushed toward their victim, crossing the hallway in the span of a few moments, much to Alessa’s horror. There were two doctors and a nurse, the blue uniform of the former and the white coats of the latter being very visible in the faint light of the hallway, ambling towards her. Alessa shot one of the doctors twice, and as it fell, she shot at the other one, stopping it in its tracks. She had to strike hard at it before it could reach her, burying her sword in the shoulder of the being and carving out several chunks again, slashing it repeatedly. She struck hard at the nurse approaching on her left, and the creature cried out in pain as Alessa proceeded to dismantle it with her sharpened blade. It was only a short time before all three creatures collapsed to the ground. When all three zombified creatures were down, Alessa breathed a sigh of relief, as she wiped her brow with her forearm.

Alessa looked at the parasite that was moving on the back of the nurse, just before it died. It didn’t appear to be a threat, but she was still being careful. She had no illusions that the creature couldn’t jump out and take her over, and that would be a big problem. She wondered how hideous it was underneath that mass of flesh, and how vicious it was. She wanted to step on it, but she didn’t dare put her foot on the back of it. It would just be too gross and disturbing. She watched it until it stopped moving. The bodies were all still, much to Alessa’s relief. She did not trust those things at all.

Alessa moved forward. She decided to start from the second part of the hallway first, so that she wouldn’t have to concern herself with this part of the hallway first. She needed to get away from these corpses for a while. She turned each of the doors individually, testing to see which ones may have held something important. The restrooms were both closed here, so it was a good thing she went downstairs. Hmm. Alessa smiled as she realized there was something unusual going on here. Room 303 was locked, but it wasn’t like the other doors. The others were all broken, but this one looked like it was being secured with a fairly decent look. It was obvious that a key was required to open it. Alessa smiled; now she knew what to look for. She could carry that knowledge into the other part of the hallway, and the rest of the building.

She found a health drink in another of the rooms, Room 301. There was a bloody stretcher in the room, and a giant mirror that covered nearly the whole expanse of the right wall. Ugh. Alessa surveyed the stretcher, running her eyes over the long plateau of metal. Blood was dripping off the metal, and a bloody shawl had been placed over it, which was now drenched with blood too. A white blanket was laid out over the stretcher, and it was equally bloody now. Eugh, gross. This was too much. She could smell the coppery scent of the blood, and it was making her feel sick. She turned away from the gurney to the mirror, in an attempt to divert her attention from the disturbing mess of the stretcher. The mirror was crystal clear, with not a trace of blood on it, ironically. Alessa touched the mirror to see if there was anything unexpected about it, but other than some static electricity (where did that come from?), she felt nothing unusual about it. She placed her hand on the mirror, and again felt nothing but the cold surface. Alessa sighed with relief; at least that was one more thing she didn’t have to worry about. She almost felt like the mirror should have triggered some transformation or something, but thankfully that wasn’t the case here.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed there was a small memo tucked into the side of the stretcher. It was typed on the hospital correspondence paper, and contained the official seal of Alchemilla.

She picked up the memo from the stretcher, skimming her eyes over the lines of text.

_Patient has severe burns on epidermis, and_   
_has sustained third degree burns to over 75% of her_   
_body. Despite this, her internal organs all appear_   
_to be intact; damage seems limited to the epidermis._   
_No major damage appears to have been sustained to_   
_internal organs. This is an incredible observation;_   
_further testing must be required in order to determine_   
_the exact nature of these injuries. Will report at once…_

Alessa threw down the paper with a grunt of disgust. Of course. Now she knew what patient had lain here: it was her. This was obviously molded after the stretcher she had been brought on, on that day all those years ago. Maybe it was even the same stretcher. Ugh. It made her queasy just thinking about it. Suddenly, she no longer wanted to be in this room anymore.

She was exiting the room when she saw it. As soon as she stepped into the hall, two nurses came rushing at her. “Shit!” Alessa cursed, falling into a fighting stance. Two nurses charged at her out of nowhere, rushing at her with the drive and the murderous rage. Alessa was forced to defend herself as one of the nurses swung at her with its sharp knife, waving the scalpel way too close to the side of Alessa’s chest. Alessa was caught off guard as one of the nurses grabbed her, and Alessa realized it was intentional, trying to restrain her from firing while the other nurse slashed her to ribbons. She had to get out of here, if she stood any chance of surviving.

“No! Get off!” Alessa screamed out in frustration, struggling with the horrid undead woman. The deranged look in her eyes told Alessa she wasn’t going to let go, and she was almost too strong to hold off any longer; her grip was like iron on Alessa’s wrist. Alessa kicked out furiously at the being as she struggled with the nurse holding on to Alessa’s wrist, catching the woman in the stomach. She kicked again, catching the woman in the groin, and once again in the stomach. The woman doubled over in pain, Alessa finally freeing herself from her grasp. Meanwhile, the other nurse was rearing back, getting ready to unleash another devastating swipe of her scalpel. She was most likely going to aim at Alessa’s neck, or face. Quickly pulling out her gun, Alessa shot her at close range, and the nurse began to fall. As the other nurse swung its weapon to strike at her, Alessa swung her sword and caught the brutal nurse in the neck. She buried her sword in the flesh of the creature, and slashed again across the chest at the nurse, until the creature was finally falling from its injuries. The twitching body gave a sickening crunch of a dying cry as it finally ceased moving.

Shit, that was too close. Where the hell did they come from? Alessa thought that she had cleared the hallway. Did that mean they could open doors? Alessa knew that they were walking around out there and wandering the hospital, but she was under the impression that opening doors would have been a bit too complex a task for them to figure out. Obviously she was wrong. Thoughts of the nurses turning the door handle into Leonard’s room, catching him by surprise, entered into Alessa’s mind. What if they caught Leonard off-guard, and he was unable to defend himself? What if she lost another source of information to the town, and Vincent wasn’t able to come up with another one for her to use?

She had better get to Leonard before they did.

Alessa went past the second part of the hallway. She ducked into a door on her right, one of the only ones that was open in the hallway. She was surprised to see a refrigerator in the center of the chamber. The room was not a regular storage room, but instead looked more like a kitchen, with dirty tiles on the floor, a refrigerator in the center, and countertops surrounding the room. What the…? Where the hell did this come from? The room was wide and large, easily allowing for all of the instruments to fit there easily. Had the layout of the floor suddenly changed from a storage room to a kitchen? However, why would they need a kitchen on the third floor? This was supposed to be a storage room! A point that gave her pause, if that was the case, since the kitchen being upstairs would only make it more difficult to carry patients’ meals downstairs, where most of the rooms were. That meant the change was only for the sake of her perceptions, not because the hospital itself had authorized the change. This was an Otherworld thing.

Alessa smiled to herself; she knew this one.

She marched right up to the large refrigerator. The refrigerator didn’t move, almost as if it was signaling its nature as a harmless appliance. Alessa wasn’t fooled. Bracing herself for what she was about to do, she marched right up to the refrigerator and pulled the door open with a jarring motion. She sliced her sword down into the creature without hesitation, sinking it into flesh and prompting a cry of surprise from the creature. She sliced off the tentacle from the creature’s body, letting it lay limp to the ground. She buried her sword in the shoulder of the creature, and struck again at the creature buried in the hollow of the refrigerator. She struck again and again, and the mass of flesh and gore finally fell silent. Its teeth running the side of its chest upwards, stopped moving, as the creature slumped in its strange hold. Alessa stepped back. The monster looked like a gray lump of flesh, formless and extended, with a tentacle for grabbing prey and luring it into its sharp awaiting teeth. It looked like an eldritch abomination of some sort, something out of a Cthulhu novel. The monster had nearly dragged Harry to his doom all those years ago, and her dad was attacked by it before he fired seven shots into it, killing it. Cybil hadn’t encountered it, but she probably would have killed it too if she had. The creature had probably been placed here to prevent any visitors from venturing out of the room, Alessa included. The creature would pretend to be asleep inside the common refrigerator, and then lure them to their deaths with the tentacle once they turned their backs. Alessa knew how these traps functioned, most of the time.

She had designed them, after all.

After exiting the room, Alessa knew she had to move on forward with finding her objective. She couldn’t afford to linger here too much. Still, she had to admit she was getting distracted by the barrage of memories that were being opened in front of her.

Why shouldn’t she in that situation? She had to admit, she almost didn’t want to find Leonard. Maybe because it made a convenient hiding place from the present.

The corpses were still there. Alessa hoped they would have disappeared like magic, but she knew enough to know that reality didn’t work that way. Still, she could hope, couldn’t she?

Alessa walked the hallway of the third floor. She knew her next destination was the elevator, so that she could find that key to the last room here. A loud stomping broke through her thoughts among the silence and decay of the hallway. Suddenly, fine debris in powder form fell from the ceiling. Alessa looked up, and her heart froze in her chest. There was something up there, she realized, on the fourth floor. Something big, and powerful. She could almost hear the dull roar of a powerful bestial form, just below the stomping. Alessa began to tremble all over with fear, as she heard the heavy steps above. That’s it! Nuh-uh, there was no way she was going up to the fourth floor. They would have to drag her there by her panties, in full Order regalia, to get her up there on the fourth floor. She began to hasten her steps, in full panic mode, spurred on by fear and by the dread of something she couldn’t name. She really didn’t want to see what was up there.

She rushed to the elevator, bursting into the compartment as soon as the doors opened. She looked at the buttons on the control panel, and the decision was obvious. There was only one place where that key for the room could be, and that was the first floor. She pushed the button for the appropriate level and waited for the elevator to go down. Alessa waited in fear, hoping that the elevator wouldn’t do anything like _take her to the fourth floor_ mistakenly or regardless, or anything, like the mischief the town liked to cause. A few times the elevator seemed to almost sputter to a stall during the long ride down, and Alessa’s heart nearly stopped cold in her chest. Finally, the elevator arrived without aplomb, and the doors opened up to the new destination.

Alessa breathed a sigh of relief, one she didn’t know she was holding in.

She had made it. She had made it to the first floor, and she hadn’t gotten sucked up to the fourth floor, or fallen into a void in the elevator from which she could never escape. Amen to that.

She headed toward the lobby, which was on the other side of the hall. She remembered a large variety of items was usually kept in the examination room, so maybe there would be something there of interest. She was quickly running out of places where that key could be hidden, and she refused to absolutely consider that it could be on the fourth floor. There was no way she was going up there. If the key was on the fourth floor, then she would just have to find a way to break down the door otherwise.

Going to the door at the end of the hall, she crossed the threshold.

 

~

 

The lobby was expansive and well decorated for a smaller hospital. A large desk served as a check-in station, behind which receptionists would take people’s appointments and answer phone calls. The counter hiding the desk from view was actually rather large, and allowed for a large number of items, including a computer and phones, to be used. It wrapped around the expanse of the lobby, separating the receptionist from the room. There were two doors separating the lobby from the second part of the hall, which meant that there were three parts to the first floor, not just two.

Alessa looked at the doors leading to the exit from the hospital. She didn’t want to go outside. The Otherworld could be outside, and Alessa didn’t want to risk it at the current moment. She backed away from the door, unwilling to risk even the temptation to open it. The worst thing that could happen would be that the Otherworld would be in its nighttime form, and that would be an absolutely terrifying ordeal to Alessa. Alessa knew that the creatures in the Otherworld were meaner during the night, and the broken streets were much more difficult to navigate. The ordeal was such that Alessa knew she would never survive it, if she let it unfold. If Alessa went out there, she would die. Alessa could not survive through the ordeal unaffected.

She focused instead on the desk used for the check-in station. There were remnants of pencils, pens, and other assorted instruments on the counter. It was all useless trash, and Alessa wondered if there was anything noteworthy here after all. There had to be something useful here. The counter was closed off, so she couldn’t go behind it, and there was no little gate to the side to go behind the desk like in some hospitals. She had to search it as it was by leaning over it. There was no other way to do so. Her fingers skimmed under the length of the counter, searching for anything of interest. Her eyes skimmed over the notes, gum wrappers, and phone pads, but no health items or keys. Suddenly, her fingers came across a groove under the counter, with a hard object positioned between the two rough edges. There was something wedged inside.

Alessa gripped the object in the groove hard, and she pulled with both hands with all her might. Finally, when she thought the strength in her arms would give out, she pulled a glistening metallic object out of the hole in the desk.

_Aha!_ Alessa exclaimed in her mind. She turned the object over in her hand and realized that it was a glistening green key, trimmed in a brilliant green color.

Hmm. Something about this key was familiar, but Alessa couldn’t put her finger on it for the life of her.

She pocketed the shimmering object. Ah well, it didn’t matter in the long run. Surely this was the key to that upstairs room in the third floor. All that was left was to go up there and open up this room, and she would finally be free of this nightmare and this unwelcome little trip to the past. The exit to this place wasn’t down here on the first floor, or some other place. It was upstairs in that room. Somehow, she knew it. There was something upstairs lurking there, waiting for her, in that room. And she meant to find out what. She had come too far to back out now.

She left through the doors in the lobby. The second part of the hall was still vacant, with none of the monsters having made their way down here. That same poster from the third floor was down here, once again reminding people that this was meant to be a hospital, not just a place where people tied down little girls, and tortured them, after leaving them in basements. Okay, so she was a little sarcastic. She couldn’t help it, she was a little bitter. Why did the staff of the hospital do this to her? How could they be so in human in compassion, and consider her nothing more than an experiment to be housed in some dark secret basement room? It was a question she didn’t know the answer to, and she would probably never know the answer to.

That didn’t make the thought more comforting.

It was too bad the director’s room was locked permanently, she mused as she passed by. She would have loved to see if there were any useful items in there. Oh well, what was done was done. There was no point in musing about things she couldn’t control, or situations that she couldn’t change.

Alessa walked the hallway of the first floor, carefully making her way towards the elevator. Suddenly, a vision began to materialize in front of her. It was like figures were appearing out of thin air, forming a scene that was startlingly familiar with regards to the persons involved in the act. Alessa stared with her eyes wide and her jaw open, looking in disbelief at the hallucination forming in front of her. The figures were astoundingly lifelike, and she almost felt like she could reach out and touch them.

_A man in a gray suit followed a nurse in a white outfit and red sweater, chasing after her. Michael Kaufmann followed Lisa Garland through the hallway in a frantic rush, grasping her hand in an attempt to catch up to her. He winced as she shook it off, and glared at him fiercely like he was the biggest devil on the Earth._

_“Get your hands off me!” Lisa screeched at him, waving her hands around in the air wildly. “That’s it! I’m done!”_

_“Ms. Garland…” Kaufmann started._

_“No, I’m done!” Lisa shouted at him, her face a look of righteous anger. She gave him a smug look, full of rage. “I don’t need you anymore,” she said._

_She went to leave._

_“You know you need the substance in my possession, don’t you?” Kaufmann stated tauntingly. “You cannot obtain it from anywhere else,” he said in a self-confident manner._

_She turned back to face him, and glared at him with resentful eyes._

_“I don’t care. I’ll go on without it,” Lisa said defiantly. There was a slight shock in Kaufmann’s eyes._

A tense silence crowded around the two individuals in the corridor. Alessa wanted to run forward and slam her weapon through the figure that represented Kaufmann, but she could only stand on the spot where she was. How dare he talk to that nurse like that; it made her blood boil to see him again talking to another human being like that. But it was useless. This had already happened in the past. She could do absolutely nothing to change it. There was nothing she could do to change it, and so the only thing she could do was watch. She watched carefully, keeping her eyes trained on the two individuals.

_“Are you insane? You can’t survive without it,” Kaufmann objected, looking panicked as his objective was slipping through the cracks._

_Lisa shook her head. “I’ll take my chances. I’m through with this!” she screamed, getting right up in Kaufmann’s face. “I won’t go back to that hell down there! I can’t stand being down there any longer, and I’m growing worse every day I spend there. I’m going to go crazy if I stay there any longer!” Lisa clasped her hands over her face, like she was trying to clear away her vision. “I’ve had enough. You can’t control me anymore, and I’m not going to let you control me anymore. You can’t tell me to go down there and take care of that child anymore! It’s too much, holding back the bugs and the rust, and I’m not going to let you do it anymore. You can’t order me around, you miserable, sadistic, godforsaken, shit-faced, pathetic excuse for a man! I hate you! You hear that, I hate you, you sadistic shit-filled pig! I wish I’d never met you, that I’d never let you demand that I do all these things. I wish I’d never taken this fucking job! I don’t care if you give it to me. Please, just let me go. If you have even a shred of humanity in you, just let me go. If you do, I won’t tell anyone about this. But if you don’t, then fuck you. I’m going to tell them about what you’ve been doing here and they’ll come for you with all the rest! I’ll make sure you’re hated by everyone in this town!” Lisa screamed, threatening the doctor with all the vile hatred and anger she had kept inside over the past few years._

As she listened to the argument, Alessa wondered what substance they were talking about. Were they using something to control Lisa, something to counteract the effects of the Otherworld that Lisa was surely feeling? Or was it something to do with her? Alessa wasn’t crazy about Lisa’s idea of leaving her behind, but she understood. There was no way to get her out of there, and even if Lisa told the police, they wouldn’t be able to help her. And even if the police came, and the Order was prepared, Dahlia would make sure they would die before they even opened the door.

She was trapped.

_Lisa began to leave. Kaufmann contemplated that for a moment, seemingly in thought. And then Kaufmann rushed at the nurse, arching his arm as if to strike her for her attitude. The vision disappeared after that._

Alessa gasped a bit, as the vision faded into nothing.

Whoa. That was intense. Alessa took a moment for herself, as she thought about what had just happened. That was an interesting experience. It was obvious that Lisa didn’t really know what she was saying anymore, but she was just furious and wanted to get out. Alessa had never really known the details of what had happened in those final days between Kaufmann and Lisa, beyond just a few basics, but it was obvious she was getting a close-up view here. She didn’t really know why she would be so affected – was it really that bad taking care of her, she wondered? – but she sympathized with Lisa’s desire to get out of her situation.

She had obviously been disturbed greatly by it. She knew there had been some after-effects of the Otherworld leaking out from her nightmares, but Alessa wouldn’t have thought the effects would be so severe.

Alessa walked the hallway of the first floor. Suddenly, she came upon a note lying on one of the benches to the side, to the right of the hallway. Alessa rushed up to the note, wondering when it had appeared. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t seen it before. Maybe she had missed it, being distracted by the thoughts of procuring that key? The note was a folded piece of paper, written on a piece of hospital stationary. Alessa picked up the note, her eyes skimming down the lines of text as she read the contents of the hospital memo with an open curiosity. The memo was apparently devoted to the overall state of the hospital, and was from a time from before her stay there during which the hospital was undergoing extensive construction.

_CONSTRUCTION!_  
 _As you know, the renovations to the_  
 _upper floors have run into_  
 _problems! The plumbing leak and_  
 _substandard materials used have_  
 _forced us to close off the third_  
 _floor until further notice. We are_  
 _reminded of the familiar adage:_  
 _'you get what you pay for!' We now_  
 _face six more months of work,_  
 _reducing our capacity for the_   
_coming year. We will have to cut_  
 _spending on inpatient care and_  
 _consultancy fees by 50%._

_Therefore we ask doctors to refrain_   
_from committing patients and_   
_encourage home stays instead._   
_Unless they're dying in your arms,_   
_don't book 'em in!_

_STAFF PARTY!_  
 _Worry not! The staff party is still_  
 _on (our recreation budget is locked_   
_away where no one can tamper!)_  
 _Everyone meet at Annie's Bar at_   
_8pm on Friday. Alcohol (medicinal_  
 _of course!) and food will be free._  
 _Arrive early to grab a trainee_  
 _nurse: they go quick!_

Alessa set down the memo with a sinking feeling growing in her stomach. She had known this was bad, that the hospital staff was corrupt when it came to maintaining an actual helpful atmosphere, but she didn’t know just how corrupt it was until she read this memo. Alessa fought to hold down the urge to throw up, clasping her hand tightly over her mouth. The images of them dragging people to these, drugging nurses with alcohol, taking advantage of them. The image of Lisa in that situation, struggling against her captors, gave her little shivers inside, and she had to struggle not to think too deeply about it…

So not only were they letting the building crumble around the patients and holding little girls hostage in the basement, they were also raping nurses, plying them with alcohol, and making a sheer disgrace of the place. They had the money for construction, but instead chose to spend it on partying instead of fixing the place and purchasing medical supplies for their patients, who desperately needed it. And if any of the trainee nurses were underaged… Alessa felt something lurch in the pit of her stomach. Yeah, this was a quality establishment, Alessa thought with a sneer. She was glad no one else was here. Alessa frowned downward in a profoundly upset motion. This was sickening. This…there were no words. This place was deserted. She should just burn it down to the ground. The only thing that stopped her was the thought of what would happen to the people on the other side, if there were in fact any patients and doctors in the building on the other side of reality.

She wouldn’t have believed the callousness of these doctors and nurses towards the other patients, even the other nurses, if she hadn’t read this memo. Jesus, what the hell was wrong with this place, and the town’s people? Every time she thought she had discovered exactly what the town was capable of, she found something worse. It was one thing to pick on her, since she was Kaufmann’s little _secret project_. But the other patients? What was their excuse _there_? And the other nurses? What right did they have to abuse them like that? Not to mention, it was all being done under the most suspicious of circumstances. This place was filthy. It was inhumane, to keep people in these deplorable conditions! While the doctors wasted their money on booze and nurses, the patients lingered in subpar rooms, second rate equipment, filth. No patient should have to live in these dust-covered, poorly maintained, filthy rooms that were just a step ahead of a sewer. Bastards; the hell with them. She hated them all. She hated them utterly with every fiber of her being.

Alessa set the memo down. There was nothing she could do. She took a few moments to calm herself, until she was once again her calm self. She shoved the paper into her backpack.

It was better to focus simply on doing her task. These things were in the past; there was nothing that could be done to change them now.

She opened the doors into the elevator and went inside, closing them behind her.

 

~

 

Alessa stood in front of the door on the third floor, holding the key in front of her. There were no unusual noises emanating from under the door or anything like that, nor was there any light that shone underneath or something. The door to Room 304 looked like the door to any other room in the building. But Alessa knew it wasn’t. There was something waiting for her behind that door. She didn’t know what it was, and she didn’t particularly care. It was obvious that the way out of here was through that door. The front door and windows on the first floor weren’t going to be of help. She needed to find out what was in this room. With trembling hands she held up the key to the lock and pushed it inside. The shimmering key was glistening in the darkness, and Alessa wished she could remember where it was from. Finally, she heard the telltale click of the door that signified the lock was open. Steadying her resolve, she took a deep breath and calmed her nerves. She turned the door handle and went inside.

The room was much larger than she expected. The darkened concrete walls of the structure stretched around her, and there was a large pit in front of her, lurking ominously several feet away. It was almost like the reality of the room had stretched the confines of the hospital, and the room was somehow much larger on the inside than it was on the outside. Like it was magic, she thought distantly. She looked suspiciously at the hole, waiting to see if it was obvious that something was going to jump out, she thought sneeringly. There were various medical equipment devices and knick knacks scattered around like light stands, tables, files, and so forth, including two tables, a cabinet, and some scalpels laying around.

Alessa shone her flashlight around at the room, peering closely through the darkness around the room. Something was wrong here. She could feel it. There was the dirtied shape of a doctor’s robe hanging over the pit, barely recognizable. Alessa didn’t even see it until she looked closer. She tried to make out the I.D. on the robe, but it was indiscernible.

Suddenly, the ground began shaking beneath her. Alessa cried out and fell back, as the rumble of the building swept through the entire room. What was going on here?! Something big was coming up, that was for sure. Alessa shuddered to think what was responsible; what could possibly be causing the entire building to quake like this? It was a sensation so strong that she literally felt it in her bones, like the entire building was crumbling into ruin.

It wasn’t long before the culprit revealed itself. A massive flesh-colored creature rose up from the hole and anchored itself into the wall, grasping onto it with an expanse that covered the entire wall. The creature roared in a powerful gesture, generating a wave that swept through the entire room.

Alessa stared at the horror as she gasped in shock. What was this?! She took a moment to examine the creature, as much as it would allow to see what she was up again. The mass of flesh and eyes, and teeth that were razor sharp and misshapen, resembled nothing less than a monster out of the darkest cosmic horror novel. The figure at the center under the flaps of skin barely resembled a human being, and it was obvious the two parts were integrated into one hideous monstrosity. The creature growled low in its ‘chest’, if it had such a thing, awaiting the responses of its prey.

She grimaced in revulsion, as the grotesque monstrosity writhed in front of her. Well, this was going to be difficult. She kept her distance, unsure if the creature would take a step toward her if prompted.

Alessa pulled out her handgun and shot the creature several times. The loud shots echoed in the chamber, as they struck with devastating force against the pliant target of flesh that should rupture in response.

The shots appeared to have no effect. The creature remained firmly unfazed; eight shots had failed to make a dent in it, to Alessa’s horror. The creature roared in what seemed to be an enunciation of agony, to Alessa; it was obvious the humanoid form under the layers of flesh and muscle was in a great deal of pain. But that did not stop it from considering her a threat, and ruthlessly attacking her. The creature drew two tentacles from either side of its body, and aimed them out towards her, preparing to attack with the blunt shaped ends.

Alessa dodged out of the way as a tentacle slammed down beside her, and again as the left one came down. The creature reared back, and once again the creature brought down its tentacles to strike her. When the tentacle slammed down near to her right, Alessa sliced it down with her sword and cut the flesh in two. The creature retracted the limb back into itself, as it was injured in roaring pain. Alessa swung her sword to her left, and once again cut the tentacle there in two. The monster roared back in pain, as it retreated back into its shell.

The monster remained waiting for several moments. To her dismay, two more tentacles emerged from the fleshy husk, regenerated and ready to take action. The tentacles shot downward, and Alessa noticed that they were feeding on the blood that had been spilled from its own body with the first few shots, lapping up the fluid eagerly. _It’s a parasite_ , Alessa realized, feeding on whatever was nearby. She wondered if she could use that to her advantage somehow, but she felt more repulsed than anything, and soon had no time to contemplate the thought further. Alessa shot the being several times, each shot laying into the monstrous creature with thunderous effect, shooting off chunks of its flesh. Alessa frowned to herself; she was running out of bullets in her current clip and needed to reload. She tried to cut off one of the tentacles again, but the creature knocked the sword out of her hand and tried to strike at her again, sending her back.

Alessa brought up her arm to defend herself, but the force of the blow was too strong and knocked her to the ground. Sprawled out in face-first position, Alessa realized the ring she had picked up had fallen out of her pocket and had struck the ground hard. The crystal that was inside had dislodged and shattered into a million pieces, splattering a large puddle of red fluid in its wake. What was this stuff? Alessa wondered. But whatever it was, she had no time to contemplate about it now.

The creature smacked on the hard tile beside her with a thud, once again having missed its mark. Without her sword, she had to improvise. Alessa pulled out her knife and pinned the tentacle to the ground in its center, holding it firmly in place. Suddenly, she was struck by a sudden thought that occurred to her, and Alessa smirked as she wondered whether it would work. Alessa pulled out her stun gun and pushed it forcefully at the other tentacle languishing in the air. The creature reeled back, retracting its tentacle as the stun gun sent a jolt of electricity through its body, and it roared in pain.

With the coast cleared and the other tentacle pinned, Alessa was free to reload. She took her time in slamming another cartridge into the gun, and reset her weapon on the being. Alessa shot the creature several times in succession, not failing even once in making her target. By now the creature retracted its long limbs and held them close to itself in a defensive position. Alessa knew she needed to finish this quickly; the longer she let this battle go on, the more she was going to risk running out of ammo, and have less available for when she needed it later. Suddenly, she spotted something that she hadn’t even noticed in her view up until this moment: a lighter, tucked into a corner of the hospital room in an almost nondescript way.

She decided it was worth it. Alessa dove for the lighter, sliding under the tentacle waving around in the air above her. She snatched up the lighter quickly and stammered back, before the tentacle could hammer her again with that hell of a punch. She now quickly had to figure out what to do, before the creature regained its focus.

The creature was now spitting up a reddish substance, one that flowed from its mouth like a river and spray of crimson. Alessa quickly stepped back to avoid getting hit or damaged from any of the spray. It burned slightly as it hit the ground, and Alessa wondered why it was somehow so familiar in her mind, despite never having seen it before. She noticed there was a type of fluid covering the body of the creature. Alessa looked down at the lighter in her hand. She didn’t want to think about the idea, but she had a feeling of what she had to do.

Alessa focused closely on the creature. She smirked at what she was about to do. And then, taking careful aim, she threw her lighter straight at the creature’s chest. The creature exploded into flames, its body bursting brutally with light as the fire spread around and consumed it.

Alessa shielded her eyes from the horrible image of the creature burning in a smoldering inferno, as it roared in the furious throes of pain. The sound was terrible, and she silently hoped that it would be over rapidly before she had to endure much more of this. The flames finally extinguished themselves gradually on their own, and Alessa dared to have a look at what damage her adversary had suffered from the heavy burning.

The creature was still intact in its overall form, but its surface had suffered severe burns all over its expanse. It was obvious that it was weakened, and now was the time to take advantage of that. Alessa shot the creature several times in succession, shooting off one burst of flesh after another in a smoking hole while the creature continued its cries of agony, until things halted. On the sixth shot, the creature collapsed on the ground, and the roar of its death throes was deafening as it came to rest on the hospital floor.

Alessa backed away in relief, but the sensation was short lived. Suddenly, she found the world changing around her, and she was helpless to stop it.

The flood of white overwhelmed Alessa’s senses, as she found her mind being pulled into unconsciousness.


	19. Chasing the Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Disclaimer: Konami owns Silent Hill.**
> 
>  
> 
> **AN:** Kudos to you if you figured out who that monster at the end of the chapter was last time.

**Chapter 16: Chasing the Past**

**Brookhaven Hospital - Part 3**

 

_There was a haze in the air, as if one was looking through a dirty looking glass, making it difficult to see. The haze gradually cleared up, transforming into a more visible sight._

_Two figures stood in the middle of the area in an argument, shouting at each other and gesturing with their hands. The figures were a brown haired man in a neatly pressed suit and an old woman in a frumpy dark dress and head scarf. They were already an odd sight, and the fact they were arguing like this spoke of a situation an outsider looking in couldn’t hope to understand._

_“I’ve had enough,” the professional looking man said, sparing notes of disdain into his voice. Michael Kaufmann and Dahlia Gillespie glared at each other, throwing obvious glares of hatred each other’s way. The figures were surrounded by white that blanketed the background, but neither one of them seemed to notice, continuing to argue viciously among the stark white background. The argument was one that showed no signs of slowing down, and spoke of years of suppressed hatred and frustration._

_“This wasn’t how it was supposed to be!” Michael Kaufmann shouted out. It had been several years already, and there was still no sign of their plan having success! He was beginning to wonder if maybe the Order’s gods weren’t as powerful as they thought. “And I want out,” he said. It was a final, appropriately grim statement. And he had had enough of waiting around. The Order’s stupid god was not going to show around him, and he bowed to no higher power. Dahlia’s face turned grim and she protested loudly but he paid her no mind. He was walking away, but he was doing the right thing. Michael had too much to lose. Power: that was the word. He now commanded every ounce of the drug trade in the resort town, and his employees all knew to heed the mandates he gave them as official word of law in the town. He didn’t need any more. He wondered why he ever thought he did._

_“You can’t back out now,” Dahlia said grimly, mouth drawn in a thin stern line. She looked furious, flame smoldering in her eyes from the disgusted rage she was feeling. She stared at the man who had once been her cohort, and virtually spat at him in disgust. “Our abilities binds you to our agreement. You will suffer a hellish judgment if you back out now!” she called out in warning, thundering fury with smoldering disgust and crumbling hatred, and yet with some notes in her tones that indicated she was feeling the stings of betrayal. She glared coldly at the doctor with pure venom in her eyes, but it was clear she was feeling betrayed by her once close confidant._

_“I don’t fear your power,” Kaufmann looked at her, then turned back. He wasn’t worried about Dahlia’s retribution, despite her words and her offended nature. He had the ultimate safeguard that he had procured, in case her plans did come to fruition. It was hidden safely in the motorcycle, where he had planted it after throwing Dahlia off with another sample for her to find. She was so easy. No matter what Dahlia did to him or tried to do through her cohorts and the power of the town, he was certain that she couldn’t touch him._

_So, why then did Kaufmann feel like he was going to his own grave?_

 

~

 

As the white light faded, Alessa awoke to a burst of confusion, groping around to figure out where she was. She sat up looking around to get a look of her surroundings. The hospital was dark around her, and she seemed to be in the middle of a corridor. Her body felt sore all over, and she remembered she had been fighting a monster on the third floor before she fell unconscious. The creature struck hard, but she had defeated it quite easily. Alessa looked around. She was on the third floor of the hospital. She recognized some of the markings in the corridor from her time doing exploration with Lisa, earlier on before she stormed out.

Alessa sneered at what she had learned. So that was Kaufmann, she thought. It made sense, and what she had seen only confirmed the thought. Kaufmann was tormented, and he had remained trapped in the Otherworld since her escape from the town, apparently. Still, Alessa held no sympathy for him. He had seen the light in the end, apparently, but not gained recognition. He had tried to back out in the end, but not for the reasons she wanted. He still wasn’t regretful for what he’d done. He had no regrets for treating Alessa like a vegetable to experiment on, and it had all been for power. The only thing he regretted was not getting the power Dahlia had promised him. She almost spat at the disgusting thought of him. Alessa was glad she had killed him. That vision had been something else, though. Alessa still marveled at how clear it had been.

The images were so clear, beyond anything she could have imagined. It was astounding that she could relieve so clearly memories that weren’t hers. The way she could hear Kaufmann’s thoughts was unsettling, too. Why was the town showing her this? Was it that she would gain some sort of sympathy for her tormentors, so that she could understand their thoughts? Or was it for her own peace of mind, so that she could move past what happened? No matter, she was never going to forgive them. No matter what the town showed her, no matter what thoughts the town tried to convince her with and make her understand, she would never forgive them. They were dead in her eyes.

Kaufmann was one step removed from a rapist. No, he was a rapist. He had taken those nurses and let his doctors do whatever they wanted with them. As far as Alessa was concerned, the man deserved to rot in hell. She could only hope he hadn’t done that to poor Lisa.

Alessa sat up, pushing herself up on tired arms. She was on the third floor of the hospital, close to the isolation ward. The nurses would put people in there who were uncooperative, and lock them in there on doctor’s orders. Alessa stood up from the ground, gathering her bearings again. She dusted herself off, and focused again on getting her mission accomplished. No time to stand around.

Alessa rushed to the isolation ward door. She wanted to see what was in there. There could be something useful in there, and she couldn’t afford to pass up any opportunity.

She opened the door and went inside. She looked around the contents of the room. There were four cells in here, lined up in order. There was a note pinned to the wall. Alessa picked it up, curious about whatever the paper had to say in this place.

_"Punishment for brutality towards_   
_patient: 12-hours confinement in the_   
_special treatment room._   
_Dismissal policy no longer in effect._   
_Contact the chief if you have any_   
_questions."_

There was something else written on top of the typed statements.

_"The trick is not to leave any marks!"_

And there was something else too, like someone had added it in at the end.

_"The chief is a pervert! Christie_   
_would have been better off if she_   
_had been fired..."_

Alessa frowned as she read it, grimly sighing to herself. Ugh, another innocent victim of this place. And she could guess what that punishment was. Rape, once again rearing its ugly head. Another person might not think so, but she could sense the undertones behind the words. This place was a den of rapists, taking advantage of every available piece of flesh in the place. The sickness that was here was spreading farther and wider, pervading every level of the town. Or was that Alchemilla? She couldn’t tell anymore. It was all blending together in one form of a tableau of a long, unending nightmare. She had to kill these people. It was a good thing that there was nobody else here, so that she couldn’t lay into them and beat them to a bloody pulp. She had to get out of here, before she went insane from the discoveries she was making. Nice _customer service_ , she thought nastily. It wasn’t enough to lock the nurse in solitary confinement, after her _supposed misdeeds_. They had to rape her beforehand too, and then left her alone in solitary confinement to suffer, like some kind of animal and chained wretch.

This place was evil, and she couldn’t believe she ever thought otherwise.

Alessa had to be careful. You couldn’t see inside the cells, which meant there was no way to tell what was inside. Alessa thought it odd that there wouldn’t be any port holes into the cells so that the nurses and doctors could keep track of what the people inside were up to, but she supposed that was part of the point. There was no light into the cell, no way to tell the time, or whether it was dark or light outside. You were alone, utterly alone in the small room, with your arms bound and there was nothing but your thoughts and the passing time to keep you company. Alessa could imagine feeling small and vulnerable inside, and it was a horrible proposition. It gave her the shudders all over.

She opened the doors to the cells. The first one was closed, as was the second. The third door was also closed. Alessa opened the fourth door, and found herself face-to-face with a nurse of the zombie variety. Alessa reacted immediately, and she jumped back in shock. The woman had her back turned to her, and that was enough to give Alessa a slight advantage. Alessa arched her sword and struck her down without a hint of remorse, stomping on the body’s torso until it made a sickening crunch. Alessa grimaced, with a grim feeling in her stomach. She didn’t know if this was the woman who had been locked in, or a representation of her, but if it was, there was nothing Alessa could do for her. Once the Otherworld got its hooks into you with its transformation, it was permanent. There was nothing that could be done to reverse it, and Alessa didn’t regret striking out at one of its victims. She felt a sickening feeling at the thought that she might have killed an innocent person, but it was what it was. There was nothing to be gained by dwelling on it.

It was a manifestation, she told herself over and over.

As she left, Alessa wondered about the scenario going on here. A lot of people would have thought that the nurse was incredibly guilty, but Alessa knew better. The nurse could have been defending herself from an unruly violent patient, or it might have just been a simple slap or series of slaps that got misinterpreted, or maybe she was every bit the violent offender the paper claimed she was. Alessa didn’t know. Alessa wanted the patients to be treated well of course, but the truth was there was simply no way to know exactly what had occurred in this place. And the “the trick is not to leave any marks” bit was troubling. Alessa didn’t think it would be fitting towards Christie, since if she had brutally assaulted a patient, she wouldn’t have had to worry about leaving a mark – the damage would have already been done. That left only one conclusion. Someone had broken into the cell, raped Christie, and then not left a mark on her in order to avoid making it an official problem. And that left Alessa sick inside. Even if she had struck a patient, no one deserved to be punished like that. Not in that way.

The part about the dismissal policy no longer being in effect was also troubling. Were they no longer allowed to leave? That meant they were prisoners – the doctors and nurses working here, being held against their will! They were being held hostage practically, Alessa realized in a momentary flash of thoughts; and weren’t just staff to service the hospital, who were free to come and go as they chose. Alessa was shuddering all over now, feeling cold as she was being sickened by the thought of what was going on here. This place was crazier than she had imagined, and she had no business being here ever under any sane state of mind. She needed to get out of here.

Alessa was in the hallway when she saw it. She knew she needed to go up to the roof, despite all her earlier ideas of not going up there. It was one of the only places she hadn’t explored yet, and she needed to see what was up there. She was rapidly running out of places where Leonard could have hidden himself to. While it seemed obvious that he would be in his room, but somehow Alessa doubted it would be that simple. She was crossing across the hallway when she saw it, a diary sprawled out on the floor, knowing full well who left it there. It looked like it had been recently written, and the ink was fresh on the page. Alessa knelt down to the familiar sight, and picked up the worn book in her hands to read. This one was different though, and she could tell as soon as she saw it. Alessa read through the handwritten diary, feeling her blood boil as she read through the words, going down every line.

_You have turned your eyes towards the wrong source, Heather._  
 _I have seen you looking at her, that interloper to our love. Your_   
_feelings for her are false. She can never love_   
_you the way I do. You must understand this. Yet you_   
_resist this. Why? What has she have_   
_that I cannot provide you, Heather? My heart thunders for you_   
_far more than hers ever will, Heather. She betrayed you, and you_   
_will soon know it, too. She is a filthy liar, and a witch. And her gender_   
_will never appreciate you the way I will. I could kill her for_   
_you, Heather. Make her suffer and squirm, until she_   
_can’t breathe anymore, and troubles you no more, and disappears from your_   
_life. Then it will be just the two of us, together again._   
_Consider my offer, darling. Your feelings for her are_   
_misguided, Heather. And your childhood can never bond_   
_you together, after what she has done. We_   
_are meant to be together, Heather. You know this. My heart_   
_swells with love for you, burning brighter than the shine_   
_of a thousand suns, my love. Cast off that interloper,_   
_and embrace the slice of Paradise that I have to_   
_offer you. Why are you so cruel, Heather? To_   
_toy with my affections like this? Don’t make me make_   
_you regret not choosing our love. She is a_   
_pretender. She can never offer you the full_   
_amount of affections that I can._

_Stanley Coleman_

Alessa felt her blood boil as she laid down the paper. How dare he… She looked around up at the surroundings of the hospital, where she knew he was lurking somewhere. “You leave her alone…” she said up at the ceiling. “You leave her alone, you hear me. If you take her away from me, I will never forgive you!” she said loudly, hoping that it sounded across just in case he could hear her. “You hear that, you son of a bitch?! If you take her away from me, after all she’s done for me, I will torture you to the end of your days. I will rip you apart and make you scream from the pain, until you regret ever coming across my path!” she threatened with all the rage and loathing she could manifest in her voice. How dare he threaten that woman, the one thing that was good in her life right now? It didn’t matter that she was angry at Lisa right now. The thought of Lisa suddenly disappearing from her life, going into the nowhere that followed this world, gave her chills all over. If this bastard thought that he could take her away from her, then he was sorely mistaken. It was ironic, Alessa thought: he had been poetic and descriptive, and pseudo-romantic during the time he was writing to her, but the moment he became jealous, the mask came off and he revealed his true nature. She needed to warn him with a threat about the consequences that would happen if he tried to take Lisa away from her, and he had another thing coming if he thought he had any chance of succeeding with that plan. And sure enough, Alessa felt the presence in the surroundings recede and a rather palpable fear suddenly manifest, as if the stalker was afraid of her. She didn’t know whether she was feeling Stanley’s actual feelings or whether the environment was somehow reflecting the fluctuations in her state of mind, but Alessa felt relieved that she had gotten her point across. Good, let him munch on that for a while, while he stood in his cowardly hideaway. He should be afraid of her, Alessa thought, with a full expression of dark satisfaction on her face. Alessa concentrated hard as she breathed in deep. She needed to calm herself, so that she could focus on her mission and get it accomplished. Being enraged wouldn’t help with anything, and in fact, it might make things worse. She took the required deep breaths and cleared her mind, until at last she felt calm all over. She forced the enraged bubble of emotion down to her core, quelling it with the forced calm in her mind. She needed to let it go, and there were more important things to focus on. It wouldn’t help to keep dwelling on it, since she couldn’t control this man’s actions. She felt able to continue.

She went into the stairway leading to the roof. She was tempted to go back down to the basement and see if that sight in the elevator was still there, but she decided not to risk it. The last thing she needed was to find out that it had walked off. She wouldn’t be able to handle that. She went up to the roof.

Again, there was a diary laying on the floor. It was accompanied by a doll to the left of the hallway, leaning up against the wall. Alessa was growing weary of this whole business, but she decided to take a look anyway. Unlike the others, this wasn’t a long drawn-out diary, written by a madman professing his love for her. This one was short, simple, and straight to the point.

_I also like the rooftop._   
_It makes me want to fly._   
_You too?_

_Stanley Coleman_

Alessa set down the diary on the ground. Who was this guy? She thought in bemused attention, staring oddly at the profane diary.

She didn’t think about what he said earlier. It was better to ignore those enraging feelings, rather than working them up again. _I’d like to push you off the roof…_ she thought darkly.

She opened the door to the exterior. She found herself face-to-face with two gigantic figures with enormous sandbag arms, ones that dragged along on the ground as they moved. Alessa weaved in between them, as she grabbed the machine gun ammo on the drum. It spoke of the situation that she didn’t even get a hint of a heart attack as she saw them, other than a hint of surprise as she saw the two monsters. She was getting too used to this. There was a nearby fence lodged between the two entryways, but it didn’t look like it was about to fall over, and Alessa didn’t even know where it would lead to if she used it to escape. Besides, the door was right behind her – why would she go that way? She was in and out before the monsters even got a hit on her.

She didn’t even know why she had the bizarre thought. Alessa looked at her treasures once inside – three clips, enough to kill several monsters at least. Good. She smirked deviously.

She went back down to the third floor. There was only one exploration worthy area left in the hospital, and Alessa prepared herself for the threshold she was about to cross, because this was it, one way or another.

 

~

 

The hallway was narrow and dark, stretching into the dark distance. She had gotten in using the code she had found in the basement, having photographed it behind the shelf on the wall, her patience with the camera and Lisa’s coaching having paid off. There were only three rooms that were open. Alessa took them one by one.

In the first room, she found a magazine sitting on the bed. There was a nightstand nearby, but she wasn’t paying it any attention just yet. Alessa turned her attention to the magazine on the bed. The magazine was flipped open to a certain article, and the pages were arranged in such a way that it was impossible to miss. That meant it was intentional. Alessa picked up the magazine article and read through it, feeling a dark, depressing feeling flow throughout her as her eyes skimmed down every word. It was written by a man detailing the activities of a cult in Silent Hill, and the orphanage that they ran under the cover of being a charitable organization. From the moment her eyes made out the words “Wish House”, Alessa knew exactly what the article was about, and what lay in store for her when she read it.

_Teaching Despair: "Wish House"_

_"Wish House", an orphanage on the outskirts of Silent Hill. But behind its false image is a place where children are kidnapped and brainwashed._

_Wish House is managed by the "Silent Hill Smile Support Society," a charity organization sometimes called "4S." It's true that 4S is a well-respected charity that "takes in poor children without homes and raises them with hope."_

_But at its heart, it is a heathen organization that teaches its own warped dogma in lieu of good religious values._

_Mr. Smith (temp), who lives near "Wish House," had this to say: "Sometimes at night I can hear their weird prayers and the sounds of [children] crying. I went there to complain one time, but they ran me right out. Since then, it hasn't changed a bit."_

_In fact, this reporter was refused admission when he attempted to take photographs in the facility. What exactly do the folks at "Wish House" have to hide?_

_During my investigations, I was able to discover, however, a suspicious-looking round concrete tower which appears to be part of their facilities._

_Unfortunately no one was willing to tell us what the tower was used for. But it seems unlikely that it has anything to do with the business of raising orphans. It may in fact be a prison, or a secret place of worship._

_The cult religion that operates "Wish House" is known by the locals simply as "The Order"._

_It's a religion that is deeply interwoven with Silent Hill's history. But its worshippers' fervent belief that they are among the elite "chosen people" has a dark and dangerous side._

_I intend to continue my investigation of "Wish House" and the cult behind it. I've always believed that "telling the whole truth" and showing the children the true path, is our most important duty._

_Joseph Schreiber_

Alessa set down the article on the bed. Wish House. It was the orphanage managed by the Order under the pretense of helping disadvantaged children, but was really a recruiting center for their order. She had nothing but bad memories of the place. Her mother had also suffered abuse in the place until she was ‘adopted’ by Dahlia, leading to further sexual abuse in that house. Overall, it was a horrid place that Alessa would have wanted no part of whatsoever. And to think she could have ended up there. If not for her parents taking care of her, or even Dahlia looking after her, she could have ended up there full time, being brainwashed into serving the Order with her resistance to its teachings. Alessa hated her biological mother for what she did to her in the end, but she had to admit it could have been much worse.

She wondered what happened to the man writing the article. She hoped that he was still alive, considering that the article was a recent one, so he might have been one of the few people who went into Silent Hill and escaped the town alive. Still, Alessa couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad had happened to him. You didn’t just go into Silent Hill meddling with its complexities, and expect to walk away unharmed. Nothing good came out of Silent Hill with regards to meddling with the powers that dwelled here. It was a lesson she had learned long ago, and it was one she hoped that many hadn’t learned for themselves, when they visited this place and found themselves caught up in complexities they couldn’t hope to understand, and horrors they couldn’t even comprehend. It was a damned, accursed place.

The next room was deserted, and also located among the same row of rooms. It was S7, the room described in the doctors’ lounge in a memo downstairs. Again, she saw a diary lying on the bed. Alessa was weary of the whole thing by now, but she decided to read it anyway. There might be something useful laying inside. Wait, she noticed there was something different about this one. She looked to the right and realized what it was. The doll: it was broken in parts, and its limbs had been pulled apart. It…was actually rather sad. Intrigued, Alessa picked up the diary and read down through the words.

_Goodbye, Heather._   
_I'm sorry I wasn't able to_   
_respond to your love._

_It's all over._   
_Leonard despises me---because_   
_I made fun of it, saying it would_   
_come to this._

_If it weren't for his meddling,_   
_I would have been able to meet_   
_you in just a little while._   
_Then I could have taken you_   
_to my world._

_A world for us alone, more_   
_beautiful than this one._

_And I had been waiting for this day,_   
_for today. The day I'd see you,_   
_the day you'd save me. Today._

_Heather, watch out for him._   
_Leonard is no ordinary guy._

_Farewell. I loved you._

_Heather, my goddess._   
_Heather, my lover._   
_Heather, my_

Alessa set down the paper on the hospital bed. So he was dead. Alessa looked to the right and saw something she hadn’t before. _Oh._ Alessa felt a sinking feeling taking hold in her.

There was a foot sticking out from under the side of the bed. Alessa looked under the bed and saw that it was attached to a body that was lying prone under the bed. He was wearing a gray hospital uniform that covered his form, the uniform of Brookhaven. _Stanley Coleman._ It appeared that Leonard had killed him. So, Leonard was not just a source of information, he was a danger to everyone around him. Alessa should get out of here as soon as possible. She didn’t have to deal with this, with all the things obviously on her plate right now.

Alessa felt a twinge of pity. She may have thought Stanley Coleman was a creepy stalker who was obsessed with her and kept calling her the wrong name, but he was just a guy who was in love with a woman whose name he didn’t even know. While she may have been angry at him for what he said about Lisa, she couldn’t begrudge him the feelings he had for her, or the jealousy he might have felt at that. She looked under the side of the bed quickly and saw a young man with brown locks sticking out from the sides, and a slim build underneath his uniform. _Hmm._ Not quite what she was expecting. She was expecting someone large or freakish looking, who looked like he belonged in an insane asylum. She took a quick peek, and her expectations were dashed. Alessa felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. He wasn’t some huge, mammoth stalker, or a man that looked particularly dangerous. He was just a guy. And if Leonard had killed him, it also meant that he was far more dangerous than she had imagined. Alessa was beginning to wish she hadn’t come here alone. She should have waited for Douglas to finish checking the house, before heading over to this hospital by herself. Still, she wasn’t going to let that detract her from continuing her objective.

Well, there was nothing she could do about it now. Leonard had killed him here, and that was that. Stanley was dead, and whatever else he’d been in life, Alessa didn’t have to bother with him anymore. She wished she could do something for him, but on the other hand he was a stalker who was obsessed with her, almost to the point of irrationality. It was probably best to leave it alone. He wasn’t a bother anymore, and that was all that mattered. She felt a twinge of pity, for leaving him here like this, but she wasn’t going to go to those extra lengths for someone she didn’t know. Especially an obsessive who had followed her throughout the hospital. She decided to move on.

Alessa proceeded further into the darkness. She had to be careful. She hadn’t yet encountered any enemies so far, and that was never a good sign. She peered through the fog of darkness, trying to discern any detail. Suddenly, she got her answer. Two nurses came shambling towards her, armed with pipes and a grotesque intention in their minds. Her radio went wild with static after the sudden appearance, providing an almost distracting background after the long silence. The ambling nurses came out of the darkness, ready to attack her. Alessa didn’t hesitate to gun them down. She didn’t have time to waste on this. A disfigured nurse came ambling out of the darkness. Alessa only caught the glint of metal in her hands seconds before she fired, and realized she had a gun in her hands. Alessa moved left to dodge the shot, and fell back in shock. Holy crap, she didn’t realize they had guns! Alessa rushed the nurse quickly, while the nurse was still readying for another shot. Alessa wrenched her arm to the side, and prevented her from firing another round. It was more difficult than it seemed, since the nurses were incredibly strong. While the nurse was grappling with her, Alessa slashed up and down on the nurse with her sword, and struck the nurse several times repeatedly with quick movements, until the creature collapsed to the ground like its strings had been cut. The creature writhed and groaned on the ground, as Alessa decided to finish it off. Alessa took her sword and plunged it straight into the body. The creature stopped moving. Alessa wiped the sweat off her forehead. That was crazy. Who the hell had given them guns?! This place was sick! She would have to be careful, if she didn’t want to get her head blown off, if she encountered any more of them.

The last room was at the end of the hall, buried in the shadows. She entered the room with a slight hesitation. The room was deserted. Alessa wasn’t surprised. She already knew that Leonard wouldn’t be here. Even though it was the only logical choice, somehow she had already known inside of her that he wouldn’t be here in this room. He would have fled, either to escape the Order or to escape the monsters that were now wandering this place. Or perhaps, to escape from something she hadn’t yet seen. Alessa didn’t know. What she did know was that she had to find him anyway. She wondered where he had gone, but if she had explored every inch of this place and there was still no sign of Leonard, then she was going to have to try some new method to gather clues to track him. By now, she needed help.

She stepped closer to the bed. Ugh. Alessa winced. The whole bed smelled like someone hadn’t bathed in a year. She could smell the body odor, and the bed was stained with dried sweat. That didn’t bode well for whoever was staying here, and if indeed it was Leonard who had stayed here, Alessa didn’t know what that said about him. She wasn’t sure she suddenly wanted to know Leonard. It sounded as if Leonard may be part of a cult, or something similar, and Alessa really didn’t want to deal with that right now, if that was the case. She hoped not.

Alessa turned to inspect the nightstand. Suddenly, the phone rang loudly in the room. Alessa was startled by the sudden distraction, sounding painfully loud in the vacant room. Who on Earth would be calling her in this place? She hesitated to pick it up. She wondered if there would be any repercussions for picking it up. Should she answer it? It was her experience that anything to do with the Otherworld was probably not good news. She remembered the last time she had answered a ringing phone, which was evidence enough of that. She stared at the ringing phone for a long time. Finally, she decided to just go for it. It couldn’t hurt to check it out. She hesitantly picked up the ringing phone. “Hello?” she said, responding with a shaking in her voice. It took a moment before something responded on the other end.

“Claudia?”

Alessa knitted her eyebrows together. It was a man.

“No, I’m not. I’m…”

The other end was impatient, cutting her off. “Don’t lie to me, Claudia! You’re always trying to run away from your responsibilities. Have you come to apologize? Or maybe you still don’t realize how foolish you’ve been,” a gruff voice said on the other end. The voice was rough, gravelly, and sounded like an older male.

Alessa backed up for a moment in thought. _Was this Leonard?_

“Listen to me!” she broke in, before the voice could interrupt her again.

“I’m not Claudia.” She ground out the statement tersely, putting the emphasis on each word.

The voice paused. “You’re…not Claudia?”

It asked the question cautiously, as though it wasn’t sure of the answer.

Alessa restrained herself from getting angry. “No, I’m not,” she said calmly, dismissing her annoyance. “Who are you?” she asked, remembering her original mission. If this was someone who could help her, then she had to listen to them.

The voice hesitated, before it fully answered. “…Leonard Wolf,” he said.

He appeared to be completely calm now in his voice, unlike earlier, when he was agitated and worked up. It seemed the revelation that Alessa was not his tormentor had sent him into a calm, soothing spell of wariness.

A world of memories flooded into Alessa’s consciousness. She had been aware of course, that there was a possibility that Leonard still lived in the town and was actively involved in the Order nowadays. But somehow, it hadn’t occurred to her that it might be _the_ Leonard Wolf, that was the man who Vincent sent her to find. Her mind refused to believe it, that Vincent would send her to find this man willingly, knowing the past that she had with him. Her mind froze in thought. Memories of him cornering her, _hands touching her_ , embedded themselves in Alessa’s mind. Alessa closed her eyes momentarily and then opened them again, trying to hold back the repulsive memories, and thoughts of disgust welling up in her mind. She cleared her mind and returned to the present, realizing that Leonard was still talking to her. She refocused her thoughts, realizing she needed to pay attention.

Leonard’s voice was low, reluctant. “I’m Claudia’s father. Who are you?” he asked, with a reluctant curiosity in his voice. He seemed to be much more calm now, but he was still suspicious of her and was wary of trusting her. Good, he should be. He waited for an answer.

Alessa thought hard with a frown on her face. She rolled over all the possibilities in her mind, considering all the possible actions she could take, every possible thing she could do. Finally, she decided on one. Alessa’s lips curved into a smirk. “My name is Heather…” she said lightly.

Leonard digested that. “Heather…I’m sorry, I thought you were my daughter,” he said apologetically. The voice was pleasant and calmly tempered now. Alessa found it hard to believe this was the same man she remembered from all these years ago. He sounded like an ordinary guy from any neighborhood, almost. There was little to suggest that he was a monster hiding under his skin.

“I’m not…” Alessa said simply.

Leonard was curious. “Are you one of her followers?” he asked inquisitively.

Alessa’s mouth shifted into a frown. “No, I’m not. I’ve come to track her down, after she led me to this accursed town. I’m going to kill her,” Alessa said coldly, wasting no time in getting to the heart of the matter. She knew that ordinarily, a man would have been alarmed to hear that about his daughter, however she knew that Leonard could handle it. She couldn’t have cared less about his emotions and feelings with regards to that matter. Still, he deserved to know what she was going to do to his daughter.

Leonard was silent for a moment. “I see…” he said, lapsing into another silence. That should have been disturbing right there. No normal guy would have that reaction to what someone had just said about his daughter. “That’s very unfortunate…” he said at last.

Alessa elaborated on it. “She killed my mother, and my father,” she said, not sure why she was elaborating on the subject. Even though he was a piece of trash and a scumbag, she still felt like she needed to give him some specific reason why she was killing his daughter. It was the oddest feeling. Maybe it was a way of clearing her conscience. “She attacked my home, for no reason whatsoever, simply because my idea of faith didn’t resonate with hers,” she went on, letting some of the bitterness leak into her voice.

Leonard groused to himself. “She’s a fool…but she’s still my daughter. I was going to forgive her if she changed her ways. Unfortunately, I see now that it’s too late,” Leonard said regretfully, as if he was genuinely regretful of losing a child to her oncoming insanity. There was a sorrow there that spoke of a mentor showing disappointment, wondering what he could have done differently along the line of things.

Inwardly, Alessa seethed. _It’s your fault that she turned out this way!_ She railed at the man on the phone in her mind, finding it difficult to control her temper. No doubt Leonard had beaten and almost raped her until she submitted to his desires, and she had become ensconced in the Order’s belief system. Claudia’s current mental state was directly related to that abuse. He was a monster, and the hypocrisy he was showing in trying to feign a concerned parent grated horribly on Alessa’s nerves. Outwardly, she kept her cool and answered Leonard calmly.

Alessa pretended there was nothing wrong. “I’m sorry,” she said calmly, in a flat tone.

“Heather, will you help me?” Leonard spoke up suddenly. “I’m locked up in here. And I must stop Claudia,” he said optimistically.

“Where are you?” Alessa asked.

“I’m not sure myself, but the door is at the end of the hall on the second floor. I think I can be of help to you. Hurry. I have a seal,” Leonard answered.

“A seal?” Alessa answered, puzzled.

She went to ask more, but the line cut off before she could answer. Alessa put down the phone back on the base.

Alessa smirked deviously to herself, jumping in her mind. A malicious smile spread across her face, as she pictured all the things she was going to do to Leonard, in his dinky little cell. Oh, he had no idea what was coming to him. Alessa set her mouth in a grim line. Now she knew that Leonard had no useful information to give her. Vincent had most likely manipulated her from the start, using her naïveté to send her out on a mission to carry out his own hidden desires. Either Vincent didn’t know what Leonard had done, or else he had intentionally set her on a mission to kill the old man. She found it hard to believe that he did not know about her past. Either way, that was that. There was no useful information that Leonard had to offer her.

Alessa smiled grimly as she drowned in remembrance. She was finally going to claim justice for herself. After all the years of running away from her pain, all the shame and humiliation over what happened to her…she was finally going to get even with her torturer. She knew some people would say that revenge wasn’t the answer, but those people weren’t her. They didn’t know what she had suffered. And there was no way Leonard would ever be brought to justice. There was only one solution: for Alessa to kill him herself. She thought about what Leonard had said about some seal. Probably some religious psychobabble that was useless to her. The man was deluded as anything.

“The door on the end of the second hallway, huh…” Alessa grinned towards the door.

She rushed out the door to the hallway. Alessa walked with purpose, carrying her gun in both hands. There was now a focused gleam in her eye, which spoke that she would not be deterred by anything. It was lucky that there were no nurses wandering around on the third floor, or else they would have been gunned down without any remorse or hesitation whatsoever. She began to pick up speed, as she became more and more focused on her mission. She ran all the way to the door exiting from the 3rd floor, wanting to get there as soon as possible. She slammed the door open and was relieved to find there were no nurses there, either.

She took the elevator down to the second floor. The 2nd floor hallway was deserted. No nurses were encountered here either, for which Alessa was thankful. She didn’t want to have to engage any enemies in battle, or waste any ammo on those creatures. She wanted to save it all for Leonard, so that she could pump that disease-ridden body full of the wounds he deserved. Finally, she stood before the door that led to the objective she had been searching for all this time.

_M7 _, Alessa thought.__

__The door was wide across the wall, made of iron against the concrete background. It had appeared out of thin air, just like Leonard said. Alessa peered at the large door, as it loomed in front of her hiding its secrets. Leonard was behind that door somewhere, waiting for her to accompany him in whatever insane plan he had planned. Alessa took a deep breath, and then opened the door into whatever void awaited behind it. She slammed the door shut behind her._ _

__The area behind the door was comprised of tunnels, apparently winding around the hospital. It was dark, grimy, and the tunnel was constructed in a very tight knit manner. Alessa shuddered. She was suddenly struck by a feeling of claustrophobia. God, what was this? It felt like the walls were closing in around her. She was expecting to find a room behind the door, but instead there was an entire labyrinth hidden behind the entryway. How could someone pass through something like this? She wondered if the tunnel had always been there, or if it had recently been constructed by sprouting in response to her presence here. She touched the wall, but it seemed solid as any construction method. This was no delusion. She supposed she should be used to such surprises now, but it was still an unexpected shock._ _

__Alessa moved carefully through the tunnels, ready in case anything came her way. There was no telling what was down here. She came to a heavy iron fence barring the opening of the tunnel. Incredibly, the barrier seemed to respond as she approached, as if it was anticipating her presence. Alessa passed warily, watching that the barrier wouldn’t fall down on her while she was passing. The sound of something coming down behind her alerted Alessa, and she looked back to realize that a large gate had fallen down to cover the area. She was alarmed at the sudden change. What was this? So the area placed gates to separate her from the tunnel the longer she went into it. Alessa frowned in a grim line. She would have to be careful that she did not take the wrong turn while she was moving, or else she would get trapped in between the barriers. The barrier sounded heavy, she mused._ _

__She wouldn’t want it to fall down on her if she was passing under it…_ _

__At some point Alessa began to hear a sound moving behind her. She was becoming aware that there was something moving behind her. The sound was a moving rustling of noise grumbling along, like the rustling of limbs combined with the growl of an animal. Alessa began to run. She wasn’t going to become caught by whatever was going on here, regardless of where it had come from._ _

__Alessa ran at full speed through the grimy corridors. She ran through the first door, and the second, using her feelings of what direction was right to go in, as she ran through the winding corridors of the maze. She passed by several gates in the process, three in all as she went on her way. But horribly, they didn’t seem to stop what was pursuing her. The last one caught her by surprise, slamming down from behind her without a hint of its presence in the beginning. The grumbling rushing sound behind her continued to make its way closer to her, now mixed with the audible sounds of footsteps rushing over the pavement of the floor. There was a growl behind her, like the sound of some animal approaching its awaiting lunch. At one point, Alessa glanced back, and she saw the image of a dark, mottled creature making its way towards her with savage intent. Alessa hurried as she felt the rush of the creature approaching her. She made her way past the final stretches of the maze, listening as repeated gate after gate made of iron and metal plates slammed down after her in the corridor, grating the atmosphere with a creaky metallic sounding noise as they blocked off the prior portions of the corridor with their chain-link, lit only by the occasional fenced ancient bulb in each section giving off a faint glow. Alessa got to the end of the road after having passed seven of the gates, signified by what appeared to be a rusted gate signaling the end of the corridor, and then stopped as she turned around. The creature had disappeared, leaving only the imposing figure of the gate in front of her. What was that? She wondered to herself. The creature sounded like something was pursuing her to make her its very dead dinner, but why would she be pursued in a place like this? Where did it go? How had it gotten down into here in the first place? Alessa shook away the questions. Now wasn’t the time to get worried about this stuff. She had a job to do, and she couldn’t afford to get distracted from it._ _

__Alessa turned to the wall on her right. There was a blood red symbol painted on the decayed wall, glowing in the subtle light of the corridor. Alessa was drawn to the image of the symbol, and she almost wanted to touch it. For some reason, this one symbol wasn’t giving her large headaches like the others she’d encountered, and in fact it almost gave her a feeling of peace. But there was nothing else that was remarkable about it. For a moment, Alessa bristled at the impossibility of the situation. Where was she supposed to go?! The back part of the place was fenced off, and this wall was solid and in her way. But again, her attention found itself drawn to this symbol. For a moment, Alessa found herself reaching out to the mysterious symbol, and she pressed her palm to the cool concrete wall as she placed her hand fully over the symbol…_ _

__She didn’t know what she was expecting, a glue-like substance sticking to her palm, or a thick ink coating her fingers, but suddenly she was fading to another plane…_ _

___The room was dark, and the view was scratchy like a faded image being viewed in a dark room. A figure sat with her head in her hands, cloaked partly in the shadows of the room. She looked tired and worn out, looking like she was barely keeping it together amid all the resulting stress. A subtle view of the image revealed that she was shaking. She spoke in a tired, carefully modulated voice, belying the overwhelming stress that she was obviously feeling._ _ _

___“Still an unusually high fever…” Traces of the red Alchemilla sweater were visible in the video. The woman was obviously a nurse, and it was clear that she was talking about a patient of some sort._ _ _

___The woman continued undaunted._ _ _

___“Eyes don’t open…getting a pulse…But just barely breathing.” The nurse (?) droned on about her charge, as if directly reporting the details for the benefit of some unseen party. The voice sounded shaky, as if she was gradually losing a hold of what modicum of control she had._ _ _

___“Why! What is keeping that child alive?” The voice screamed into the darkness, now showing the true extreme of her stress, as if demanding the answer from the unseen person recording the whole ordeal, on the other side of the camera._ _ _

__Alessa regained control of her mind as the vision faded. Whoa. That was an impressive vision. Alessa looked at the symbol, and realized the wall had disappeared! Perhaps she was meant to view that before proceeding forward. Alessa cast a downward gaze at the floor, a bit ashamed of herself at the moment. She had no idea Lisa was in such bad shape. She sounded calm at first, but Alessa could hear the strains in her tones and the underlying tensions, like she was barely gripping onto her sanity. And then she had lost it entirely, letting the true extreme stress in her tones show. She had no idea taking care of her was such a painful proposition. Perhaps Alessa owed Lisa an apology._ _

__And when she next met the nurse, Alessa would get on her knees and beg her not to leave her alone, if she had to. While she was still a bit miffed about being responsible for what happened to Lisa in her years, perhaps this was one occasion in which she would simply have to swallow her pride and just apologize for something she didn’t do, if only to keep the peace. She would beg Lisa to stay with her, if it meant that she wouldn’t be alone again._ _

__Alessa went further into the hall and exited through the door._ _

__She found herself in a very short room. There was barely any room to maneuver, and it was obvious that this was a relay point in between two major buildings. Alessa looked up and saw a ladder. Ugh. It looked like she had to climb a ladder. A **long** ladder, she thought to herself. It looked like it stretched up forever into the hospital, Alessa thought, and the top wasn’t even visible through the shadows. Ugh, this was going to be no fun. She had better hope her grip was up to the task, or else she would fall a long distance, and she didn’t want to bang her knees on this ladder, or worse._ _

__Well, there was nothing for it. She had to do this. She began to climb the bothersome ladder, carefully stepping on one rung at a time. Grabbing the bars to make sure she had a firm grip on the ladder, she hauled herself up the annoying contraption. Her upper body was getting a workout in this place, she groaned to herself mentally. She climbed slowly at first, gradually gaining speed as she became more comfortable with her grasp on this thing. The rusted walls passed by as she climbed the ladder step by painful step. _Oh, don’t look down, don’t look down_ , she told herself, willing herself not to look down at the bottom of the shadow filled room. There was no telling how far up she was, and she would probably die if she fell. Or at the very least, break her legs and end up permanently stranded at the bottom. The more she went up, the closer the details of something drew. Alessa jumped: she had no idea there was someone up here! She looked through the ladder to see a figure with pale skin and a leather smock positioned in some crevice in the wall behind the ladder. The figure was turning a valve and hanging by his claws from a wall, and there appeared to be two flesh-like tunnels on his sides pulsing in response to his ministrations. Alessa stared in shock at the monster. What the hell was this creature? She had thought this was the Red god, but the truth was that now that she thought about it, she had no idea what this creature really was. The creature had followed her all throughout her journey, and whatever it was it seemed to have an interest in watching her. Alessa continued to shakily grip the ladder as she maintained her grasp, trying not to get too close to it as she climbed. She couldn’t shake the feeling of it being directly under it. _Gross._ She shuddered all over. There was nothing creepier than climbing a ladder while there was some monster operating on some valves under her._ _

__She continued to climb the ladder. God, it seemed like the passageway would never end. How did anyone build anything up here like this? Or was this another manifestation of the town, with no basis in reality? Whatever this was, this had to be several stories tall. She felt tired just from climbing the ladder, even with her current fitness level. All of the stress from all that she had done and all the battles she had fought was starting to take a toll on her. She could have used some gloves, too; they certainly would have helped. The metal was rusted, and it smelled terrible._ _

__As she continued to climb, she came across a most unusual sight. There was a woman positioned behind the ladder, tucked away in some small crevice of the structure under a metal beam. She was much larger than a human person, pale, wearing some tight-fitting facsimile of a nurse’s outfit with thigh-high boots, had dark hair, her arms were bound behind her in some kind of imprisoned position, and was hanging from the space by indeterminate means. Alessa frowned at the mysterious display. There was something about the bound figure that somehow seemed familiar. There was something about the green shoes she was wearing that seemed oddly familiar. What was it supposed to represent? Alessa decided to shake it off. Whatever it was, there was no reason for her to concern herself with it at this time. She continued to climb._ _

__After a bit more of climbing, she finally neared the end of her goal. She came upon a platform that was suspended at the highest point of the room. There appeared to be something above it of importance. With a bit of oomph, Alessa climbed the platform, and hoisted her legs over onto the walkway. She stood up and dusted herself off, wanting something to get the smell of metal off of her. There was a door right in plain view on the walkway. Well, the next route was obvious, she thought. There was a red light bulb right above the door. Alessa wondered what it symbolized. The result was that the entire area was covered in a reddish hue. Alessa took a deep breath. This was it. This was what she’d been waiting for her entire time here, ever since she first realized who it was who was on the phone. She steadied her resolve._ _

__Alessa took a deep breath, and then she opened the door and stepped headfirst into a nightmare._ _


	20. Nightmare Hospital

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Disclaimer: Silent Hill is owned by Konami.**
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> **Warning:** Molestation ahead, and practically rape in two of the following scenes in this chapter.
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> This place is even more perverse than the hospital in Heather's scenario, since Alessa has that many more demons to confront.

**Chapter 17: Nightmare Hospital**

**Alternate Brookhaven - Part 1**

 

As soon as she saw her latest surroundings, Alessa had an overwhelming urge to scream in terror. The hospital had shifted into a nightmarish version of its former self. After going through the Otherworld versions of the shopping mall and Hilltop Center, she thought she had seen things as badly as they could get. Now she knew she hadn’t even been close. 

The wall in front of her had transformed into a grotesque substance akin to soft tissue from inside an animal. Odd lines traced across the reddish orange structure, as if small worms were crawling just beneath the surface. Combined with a disturbing throbbing similar to that of a pulsing heart, the barrier appeared to be nothing less than a gruesome living wall. Worse, as Alessa braved to take a few steps forward, she could see the hallway to her left was composed of the macabre substance. A harsh bout of trembling racked her body as she felt herself quickly losing whatever strength of mind she had left.

As if that wasn’t awful enough, a putrid stench of congealed blood, rotten meat, and gods knew what else emanated from the ghastly walls. It was indescribably nauseating, causing Alessa to cover her mouth and nose as she felt bile rise up in her throat. It was of little use; the horrid odor still penetrated into her nostrils, unsettling her stomach further. She struggled to hold it while maintaining the grip on her magnum in a futile attempt to ease her discomfort. 

There was nothing behind her but an abyss of endless darkness. Though there were no doors that she could see on the horrible walls, she knew her sanity depended on getting out of this hallway as fast as she could. Nevertheless, she felt frozen in place from panic. Then she heard it. 

It was a grating drilling sound that was all too familiar – the noise made by those disconcerting needle-like creatures. But that wasn’t the chilling part. This time the noise was amplified to a frightening degree. It pierced Alessa’s ears, making the girl shriek frightfully. The part of her mind still thinking rationally realized that the sound could only be this high if there were many of the dreadful creatures put together, or a very large one, heading towards her from the pitch black space. Either way, she wasn’t waiting around to find out.

Alessa ran in a panicked daze down the hallway, desperately trying to find some exit out of the ghastly nightmare she had walked into. But the hideous living substance covered every inch of the corridor’s walls, nearly hiding the doors present in the area. Though it repulsed her beyond words, she felt the fleshy surface of the wall to her right with trembling hands, quickly trying to gain entry to any other room. Just when she felt like screaming again, the doorknob of a nearly invisible door yielded to her efforts. She rushed blindly into the room and none too soon. Before the door had even closed behind her, Alessa collapsed on her knees, vomiting onto rusted metal grating. She held her stomach as she retched violently on the chain-link floor, thankful that healthy drinks were the only thing she had consumed in the past several hours. 

The spell soon passed and the young woman sat on the floor, putting her head between her knees in an attempt to drive away the remaining nausea. She curled up into a tight position in a part of the room, hiding her face from the outside world that was now literally crawling with horrors and monsters. Eventually, the spell passed and she settled back into a sitting position. She still couldn’t bring herself to raise her eyes. She settled down eventually enough to raise her head, staring at the rusted metal of the room dully with a sense of ominous dread. That is to say, she was now more composed so that she was only subtly shaking in fear, instead of screaming in terror. How could anyone be expected to deal with this? It wasn’t fair; it wasn’t right.

She looked at the door to the room, the thin piece that was separating her from the horrors of the outside world. She was trembling all over, moving her muscles like a quaking bowl of jello in the freezer. _I can’t go back out there_ , she thought. _If I do, I’ll die_ , she said to herself, shaking her head. There was no doubt about it in her mind, that if she went back out there it would mean her death. Either by the loss of her sanity, or else by getting ambushed by some abomination she had no hope of defeating. The area outside was just too nightmarish, too hellish. The earlier drive she felt to pursue Leonard evaporated entirely, leaving her empty in the face of overwhelming horror. Leonard wasn’t just trapped in a nightmare, he was in a literally living nightmare, blatant and all-consuming in its grimy decay. She was going to die if she went back out there, and if how terrible it was for her was any indication, Leonard would probably be dead soon anyway. She shouldn’t bother risking her safety out there, when it was blatantly obvious the man she wanted was going to be dead soon, anyway.

_No, I can’t give up now!_ She protested to herself, picking herself up in her mind. There was no certainty, no assurances that the man that she was hunting would be dead. Maybe the monsters hadn’t spotted him, or perhaps he had gone beyond them, in whatever he had become. She couldn’t be the only armed person out here. She had a job to do, and she couldn’t allow fear to stop her from doing so.

Alessa slowly raised herself up from the ground, gathering her bearings back to her prior status. As she looked to the left, she was startled with a gasp by a hand trying to claw its way into the room through the window, and its wire mesh. Jesus…! What the hell was that? She thought. Alessa nearly raised her gun to fire, until she realized it was just a hand, and wasn’t trying to present a danger. Alessa breathed a sigh of relief, lowering her gun. Alessa examined the hand closer, stepping up to the window frame. Jesus, it looked like someone had tried to climb their way up the wall from the outside! But who would do such a thing? Alessa wondered. What kind of person would be crazy enough to climb up a building in the Otherworld? Furthermore, if this was only a hand, what had happened to the person attached to it? It had some strength to it, Alessa noted, seeing how it had torn through the grating in the window by ripping it with its fingers. Alessa didn’t want to meet whoever was responsible for the hand, she thought with some measure of uneasiness. Alessa had a sudden image of the Otherworld transitioning the physical place to its current state, and chopping off the person from the hand as the person was now left in another dimension. Shudder. It was probably best not to think about it.

Gathering her gun, and resolving any nerves that were left lingering, Alessa stepped out into the exterior. It was time to get this moving.

Alessa stepped out carefully into the hallway, keeping her guard up. It wasn’t as bad as before. The walls were still crimson with crawling tissue, and it was still dark beyond belief in the rusted hallway, but the initial shock had worn off. She could do this, she reassured herself. Taking a deep breath, Alessa started moving. Alessa reached for the first available door in the nearby area, finding herself grateful beyond words when she found it unlocked. She tried to avoid touching the tissue directly, not knowing what kind of effect it would have on her, finding herself grossed out beyond words, and just all around repulsed by the obscene display. It was just disgusting. There was a stretcher nearby in a cubby, with a blanket laid over it. Alessa didn’t even want to know what was under it. There was a piece of meat on the ground under it, or what looked like meat. Alessa was disgusted, but she also knew what that meant. She got out of the hallway, before the slurper monsters that were infamous for it could track her. Alessa turned the doorknob and went into the room with its unknown quantities.

After entering the room, Alessa was startled as she realized the horrific sight in front of her. There was a murdered man hanging from the roof dripping blood down onto the floor, with a bucket laid out in front of him, bloody and grotesque. Jesus…what was this? Alessa thought, examining the body. The bucket was filled to the brim, and the body was cut with deep slashes. This wasn’t a series of simple cuts, this was a full-on massacre of the body, letting its blood out onto the floor. Who could have done this? She thought, wondering who was twisted enough to do this to a human being. Oddly enough, she noted that the body was dressed like Harry. She wondered if that had any significance.

Alessa went out into the hallway, to explore it further despite the obvious dangers out there. She searched for the first open door that she came across, carefully feeling the doorknobs amidst the almost all-consuming darkness that shrouded the area. She was careful not to touch the tissue above it on the doors, being unable to stand the disgusting sight before her. Eventually, Alessa found a door that led her out of the area into another vicinity of the hospital. After shutting the door Alessa breathed a sigh of relief, thankfully out of the mad house back in the corridor. She didn’t realize what a toll that was taking on her sanity until now that she was back in the peace and quiet. Alessa breathed a sigh of relief and took a moment to steady herself. She went around the room on a metal grating floor, trying to determine how big this place was.

The new room was dark and rusted. Alessa saw a giant dark shape in the center of the room. There was a sour smell wafting out of it, making Alessa grimace. Alessa wrinkled her nose; what exactly was this thing? The thing was square and large, hanging over a large pit in the center of the room. The floor in the room surrounded the object like a walkway on the upper structure of some factory. It looked like a trap that you set for moths, Alessa thought, staring hard at the object. Who had put it here? It looked to be made of mesh. She wondered if she could set it on fire. Alessa went through the door at the far edge of the room.

Once she saw what was waiting for her on the other side, Alessa breathed a sigh of relief. Now this was something she could deal with. The familiar chain-link floors and the rusted, peeled walls, were something that she had seen before. It was like the settings that she had conjured up six years ago, during that trying incident. It was almost like coming home, in a bizarre, twisted way. Yes, it was still nightmarish, it was still horrible, but it was a familiar type of nightmarish and horrible, not something that was unknown. It wasn’t an unknown horror, something that she hadn’t seen before. She felt comfortable here. She could deal with this.

The sound of enemies approaching reached her, groaning and crackling coming from the darkness towards her. Alessa readied herself. Wait a minute. She took out some beef jerky from her backpack and threw it down in front of her a few feet away. There, now she was ready to deal with whatever came her way. Sure enough, the monsters came out of the darkness, crawling along the ground like ants looking for a meal. The creatures stopped at the jerky, and began to eat the raw meat with reckless abandon. Alessa shot them both before they could respond. One of the creatures tried to reach her in a furious scurry, but Alessa shot it in its stride. Suddenly, two nurses appeared out of nowhere. Alessa realized she had stepped into a nightmare as she saw her adversaries. The hallway was a tight one, and it was difficult to maneuver in it. The nurses advanced on her, unpaused by the monsters lying dead below them. One of the nurses advanced with a pipe, intent on of smashing her to bits with it. Alessa shot it, kicking it back brutally. Another nurse appeared on the horizon. Alessa began to panic as she realized she was losing control of the situation. Suddenly, something grabbed her leg. One of the monsters she had shot at the beginning wasn’t quite dead, and had stepped forward to grab her ankle with its twitching arms. Alessa frantically tried to shake off the creature’s grasp, as she shakily lifted her arms and tried to aim at the more immediate threats. The sounds of the creature, the mumblings of the nurses, and the background ambience of the area were all combining into a horrible chanting too loud for Alessa to block out with her focus. And then it happened. Alessa saw the glint of metal in the darkness among a gloved hand, and before Alessa could react, the nurse lifted her pale mottled arm and fired her classic revolver. Alessa screamed as she felt the pressure that immediately struck her in the shoulder, sending her to the floor. It was lucky she still had her bulletproof vest that she had gotten at the mall, which she had positioned under her shirt; she didn’t want anything ripping it off her with their claws. Alessa winced; if the nurse had aimed a few more inches up to the left, she would have been dead. Alessa cradled the near wound in her shoulder gingerly. The force of the blast was tremendous. She had known it would hurt to be shot, but she didn’t know exactly how painful it would be. Even with the bulletproof vest on, it still hurt, as she felt tears prick at her eyes.

She tried to aim at the creature stopping near her head, while cradling her shoulder injury. In a shaky shot, she fired a shot at the head of the creature and connected, killing it instantly. At the same time, she saw the nurse with the gun approaching her, no doubt looking for another shot. Alessa wasn’t going to give it one. She saw the nurse reloading with her hands and acted quickly. She lined up the handgun and fired, and caught the nurse straight in the chest. The nurse crumpled to the ground, like a puppet with its strings cut.

At the same time, the other nurse was still charging towards her with its pipe, slamming it through the air with a singularly minded force. Alessa had no choice. She scrambled to get up, among the throng of dead bodies and limbs. With the shadow of the nurse approaching, she took another path. Alessa blocked the blow of the nurse’s pipe with her sword, and swinging it aside, she struck the nurse hard in the torso with her sword. She slashed at the nurse several times, and when the nurse was suitably staggered, Alessa took her gun and shot her point blank in the chest. The nurse staggered to the ground in a fall in a writhing mess, and after a suitably satisfying crunch, the nurse finally stopped moving. Alessa wiped her forehead with her forearm, and breathed a sigh of relief. God, that was too close. She hadn’t counted on meeting such a large group of monsters straight out of the door. They sounded like they were only a couple of monsters at first, but in truth they were large in numbers and powerful. Alessa held the injury her shoulder had sustained, still wincing as she rubbed the shoulder that was still aching. She had no idea it would hurt this much. Movies and video games made it seem like it would be painless and effortless, but it was far from the case in truth. She definitely had more respect now for her dad for taking several of these during his time in the service. She was still shaking at the fact that she had nearly died. If that nurse had better aim… That probably wouldn’t be the end of it; she doubted the town would let her leave that easily. Still…it wasn’t something that she wished to contemplate. She dug the bullet out of the fibers of the bulletproof vest and tossed the bullet away, expressing disgust at the weapon that the nurses had somehow managed to procure.

Alessa crept around the corner, carefully searching for any presences nearby. Thankfully the coast was clear. Thankfully the coast was clear. There was still a malevolent aura that remained in the air, though. It felt like a cold sensation that spread deep into her body, leaving her chilled to the bone. Alessa saw the elevator, and she was tempted to take it down, but she went into another door instead. She wanted to explore this area further, before going down into a new section.

The room was vacant. Alessa leaned against the door, taking some time to let the adrenaline wear off. At least she had neutralized the threat to her well being in this level of the hospital. If there was one small thing to be grateful for in this surreal world, it was that her enemies didn’t re-spawn like in some of the video games she played. The creatures stayed dead after she’d bashed their skulls in, shot them to death, or sliced them to ribbons with her katana. 

Strange, she reflected, how easily she viewed the bestial horrors pursuing her not as flesh and blood beings whose lives she’d taken, but as mindless enemies to be squashed, no more significant than an ant or a roach. 

Alessa didn’t consider herself a cruel person. Yet she had killed dozens of these creatures on her journey, some of them rather viciously. Not all of them were in self-defense either. There were quite a few she had killed from a distance before they had a chance to attack her. She didn’t regret those actions, but she was rather disturbed by how easily they came to her. 

Was this Claudia’s plan? She wondered. To make her into a murderer, no better than herself or the monster that killed her mother?

Alessa banished the thoughts. Now wasn’t the time to start doubting herself. If she wanted to survive this madness and avenge her mother’s death, she had to be single minded in her resolve. Only an unwavering belief in herself and her determination to see justice done would see her through to the end. She could cry over what she’d done after Claudia was dead and her “God” had been sent back to Hell.

Alessa surveyed the room. It was nearly identical to any other in this grotesque, decayed place. The walls were sheeted with the same reddish brown mixture of rust and congealed blood that crusted the rest of the Otherworld. There were only two things of interest present in the room. One was a sink sitting in the corner to her right. The other was a huge full-length mirror that stretched over the entirety of the wall opposite the door she entered through. Alessa looked at the mirror, examining its features closely. God, this thing was creepy. Why would someone put a full-length mirror in a room like this? She could see every single detail of herself and the room, laid out in crystal clarity on the mirror. It reminded her of a video game room. At least there were no zombies here, although that would be the least of her problems. Her fear of there being another world behind the mirror was rearing up again. Now that she knew it was true, it was even more pronounced. Alessa examined her features closely in the mirror. God, she looked terrible; it looked like a train had railroaded her somewhere along the way, leaving her bruised, bloodied and battered. Alessa wasn’t a vain person, but even she had her standards, and at this moment she wondered how anyone could possibly find her attractive. How could she possibly compare to pure, perfect Lisa, who was roaming around somewhere in the hospital? There was a washbasin in the corner, of some kind. Alessa wondered what it was for. She wasn’t going to pay it much further attention in any case; should she, if it wasn’t doing anything?

Where was Lisa, she wondered? Was she still walking around in the other version of the hospital? Or had she abandoned her permanently to her torment here, after their argument about past circumstances? She hoped not. She really wanted to see Lisa again.

Alessa ignored the basin, and went back to the door to leave the room. What the…? She turned the knob and realized the door was locked. The doorknob wouldn’t turn open, no matter how much she tried. What was she supposed to do now? Shit, what the hell was this? If the door wouldn’t cooperate, Alessa wasn’t going to let that stop her. She was going to have to find another way out of the room. She wondered if she would be able to shoot out the door, although if it was metal that was probably impossible. Perhaps she could break the mirror, although there was probably nothing but a wall behind it. If there was another world behind the mirror, perhaps shattering it was the key to escaping into another part of the Otherworld. Suddenly, she heard a gurgling sound, like some fluid was rushing out of a pipe from a drain. What the…?

Alessa searched the room, and realized it was coming from the basin. It sounded like there was something bubbling under there, just below the surface. It started slowly at first, but soon enough the effect began to become visible. Tiny rivulets of blood began to appear out of the basin, filling the white washbasin with thin red lines appearing like the squiggly threads in a spider web done in a child’s drawing. Oh god, blood was flowing out of the basin. Alessa looked to the mirror and saw the blood hadn’t spread to the rest of the room, but it was definitely visible in the surprisingly clean glass, showing that it wasn’t just a hallucination in her mind. This was real. She tried to break the knob open, but it just wouldn’t open no matter what. The blood was beginning to fill the room now, spreading all over the floor. It looked like the floor was impenetrably crawling in veins of red streaking all across the floor of the room, connecting in a web that stretched across the surface of the ground. Alessa looked at the mirror, and as she was turning around her reflection suddenly _stopped moving_. Oh God, she had to get out of here! She desperately wrestled the doorknob from side to side, desperately trying anything she could to get it to open. Her reflection was just standing there like a frozen captured image, forever frozen in place. It wasn’t natural. What the hell was wrong with that mirror? She didn’t want to know, and she was sure if she stayed here any longer she was soon going to find out. She felt weaker all of a sudden, and realized that this blood had to be doing something to drain her strength. Oh God, she had to get out of here, before she _died_. She hadn’t noticed it before, but the blood was crawling up on her reflection, like some kind of living plague that was engulfing her slowly. It reminded her of when she was in that hospital bed, scarred and bloody. Oh god, it was repulsive, and she felt more uncomfortable staring at that thing than she had at any other part throughout this hell. She stared transfixed at the image, focused entirely on the image at hand. The blood continued to flow into the room, and yet she was unable to look away.

The air lingered heavy in the gradually filling chamber. Alessa was completely transfixed by now. Suddenly, the reflection put its hand up against the mirror. Alessa was in shock at what she was seeing. How in the world was it possible that the reflection was moving on its own? Alessa began to walk back from the mirror, resisting the urge to bash against the door in a panic. The reflection remained still with its hand pressed against the glass, gleaming in the mirror in all its grotesque appearance. The reflection remained focused for one more moment, and then it pushed its way through the mirror.

Alessa’s heart stopped, as she saw her double stepping through the storage room mirror. Oh God, she had to get out of here! She rushed to the door desperately, frantically banging on it, trying the knob, and trying anything she could to try to get it to open. If only she had an ax, so she could try to chop it down. She banged furiously against the door, railing against the town, and she might have even called out for Lisa at one point, or for Stanley to open the door; for someone, _anyone_ , who could help her and get her out of here. The double stalked ominously towards her, seemingly confident of its ability to subdue. Looking closely, Alessa saw that it wore a naughty little grin on its face, which was made disturbing against its hideous burned face riddled with scars. Left with no choice, Alessa drew her sword and charged at the double, intending to strike it squarely down the middle. It didn’t last long. The double caught her arm in mid-air, and Alessa was stopped in her tracks. Alessa couldn’t believe the unbelievable strength of the double. It was like an iron grip, and she was unable to break free. The double slowly forced her arm back, bending it at the elbow. She tried to fight it with her own strength, but she was no match for the creature. The double bent her arm back until it was behind her head. Alessa was afraid she was going to snap it, but that didn’t happen. With a sharp movement, the double sheathed her sword, rendering her disarmed. The double gripped her other arm, and then it did something shocking. The double pulled her close to it, holding her close in place. Alessa yelped as the creature pulled her close. The debilitating effect of the floor was still in place, and Alessa felt herself getting weaker with every moment. She tried to fight it, but she was too weak to release herself from the creature’s pull. The creature was too strong; too physically forceful. She felt her heartbeat rapidly beating in her chest.

Alessa wasn’t expecting what came next. The double pulled her into a kiss, completely enclosing her mouth. Alessa cringed at the taste of rust and coppery blood in her mouth, and she was nearly repulsed enough to go into a nauseous state. The double pulled back, and began to kiss her thoroughly on the neck, working its way down her skin. Dark Alessa (she had begun to think of it as an entirely different entity, rather than just another creature – it was her, after all) covered every inch of her skin, leaving no inch of it untouched by her dry, horrid lips. Oh God, what was it doing? Was this punishment for what she had planned to do to Leonard? Or was it just random cruelty on the part of the town? Dark Alessa began to move her arms all over, moving them around her back and then to her breasts. She was trembling all over, as her doppelganger roamed and examined every inch of her body with enthusiasm. _Please no._ Anything but this. _Anything but this_ , she thought desperately. She was helpless to stop the probing fingers and arms working their way across her body. The double smirked at her deviously with a feral grin, and then she slipped her hand down the front of Alessa’s jeans. Alessa gasped as she felt her double’s fingers against her skin, touching her in that most intimate of places. The double’s fingers felt rough and flaky against her flesh, like sandpaper mixed with some moisture. Alessa shuddered to think what it actually looked like. She tried to break free from her double’s grip, but the double’s grasp was too strong, her strength like an iron grip. And suddenly the situation took a much worse turn. The double began to stroke her, making distinctly unwelcome motions against the entirety of Alessa’s sex. Alessa gasped as she realized what her double was doing. She was whimpering in the monster’s grasp, shaking her head in disbelief at the turn the situation had taken. _Please no, not this_ , she prayed to every deity imaginable she could think of that would prevent this from happening to her. Dark Alessa’s fingers were ruthless, as they continued the ministrations that were responsible for the disgust and fear being coaxed out of her.

Dark Alessa continued to inflict her ministrations on her, brushing her fingers coldly against the sensitive contours of Alessa’s flesh. And then Alessa shuddered violently in disbelief as her body began to react, yielding under the advances to the influencing motions of her double. Her flesh grew erect, and blood began to flow to the appropriate regions. She supposed it wasn’t surprising, since they had that power – it was simply a matter of sending the right stimulation to her nerves, and causing them to respond. Oh God, this wasn’t happening to her. She knew exactly in what ways to touch her and how she liked to be touched – she was her, after all. Her fingers felt fiery on her skin, exciting the nerves as they formed a blazing little trail on them. Alessa was crying by now, inside her safe place in her mind, from the humiliation and pain she was being forced to endure. She would have cried, but she was still in shock at the horror that was being inflicted on her, and she gasped in an open mouthed scream as no sound came out. Dark Alessa’s grin was condescending, and she ruthlessly moved her fingers in quick, stimulating motions as she bared her teeth. She focused on her clit, and Alessa gasped and arched her back in shock as she pressed her fingers deep against her sensitive nub. Oh god, she couldn’t believe she was getting off on this. This was a horror show. She was _stimulating_ her, and doing a damn good job of it too.

Dark Alessa continued to stimulate her with her fingers, keeping her locked in place. She quickened the pace at which she roughly pleasured her, putting more focus on her sensitive flesh. Her panties were drenched by now, as she struggled to cling to the double’s grasp. She tried to go for her gun to shoot the double in the torso, but her double simply held her in place with one strong, powerfully locked arm. Alessa groaned as the double quickened her pace over her flesh, brutally rubbing her as she was driving her towards the edge with her hideously burned fingers. _Oh God. No!_ Alessa felt something arch back in her and knew that she was going to approach an orgasm. She pleaded desperately for the creature to stop, but there was no mercy to be had in the creature’s burned ears. She desperately tried to pry herself out of the monster’s grasp, but she no longer had any upper body strength left in her exhausted form after all this. Alessa stiffened all over her body, tensing as she failed to stop the uncontrollable force, until at last Alessa exploded in orgasm. She gave a loud shriek, her body quaking all over, hips bucking in jerky motions, as she struggled to hold back the waves that had taken over her. Her panties were ruined, but that was nothing compared to the humiliation and pain she felt currently at the moment. The double was merciless, continuing to finger her sensitive flesh until she had coaxed every last bit of pleasure out of Alessa.

Alessa looked down, feeling the wetness that had formed as a result of her double’s hand down there. She was broken; the energy had been sucked out of her by this beast that dared to pose as her. Alessa slumped in her double’s embrace, breathing hard as the waves of pleasure pain receded. Tears fell from her tired eyes, mourning the loss of dignity she had suffered at the hands of her own dark side made flesh, here in this monument to human suffering and hopelessness. 

She expected, and prayed, that her alternate would cease this torment of her now that she had accomplished her depraved goal. Alessa had lost control, climaxing with such intensity that she wanted to sink to the floor and weep. She was humiliated beyond words from how easily this demon exploited her own body against her. All she wanted was to be left alone in her misery. 

Her mirror self had other ideas. 

Barely seconds after her orgasm passed, Alessa’s double resumed her assault on her sex organs. Dark Alessa’s fingers thrust deep into her entrance, gradually increasing their pace again as they violated the helpless young woman. The demon alternated between slamming her fingers in and out, and roughly moving them over the most sensitive spot inside Alessa’s vagina, stimulating with cold precision the already swollen patch of flesh. 

“No! Not again, please,” Alessa stammered out a broken, strangled plea. She still hadn’t recovered from the first forced orgasm, and already she felt the stirrings of another taking shape in her ravaged core. 

As before, her cries went unanswered. The Otherworld was unmerciful, unflinching, as it worked its cruelty through its monstrous imitation of the young woman. There was no sign of remorse in Dark Alessa’s eyes. She jabbed her scorched fingers into Alessa’s sex with unkind force, eliciting cries of pleasure and discomfort from her victim. Her thumb rubbed over Alessa’s clit, sending electric shocks over Alessa’s body from her erect nub. Because Alessa’s clit and vagina were now very sensitive from coming, her mirror self’s ministrations were doubly as potent as before. Alessa gasped and audibly sucked in her breath, whimpering and moaning loudly from the sexual gratification being ruthlessly drawn out of her body. Her juices gushed out of her opening, dripping onto the floor with the hammering of Dark Alessa’s hand, where they mingled with the crimson fluids dripping out of the demon. 

Alessa was lost in the assault. Her cries grew increasingly strained, becoming loud sobs that left her choked and barely able to breathe. It was all she could do to hold on tightly on her dark self’s shoulders, gripping the burnt, slimy flesh with what strength she had left as her rapist brought her closer and closer to another excruciating orgasm, one she was certain would send her into unconsciousness from its massive intensity. The pressure continued to grow, building like a tidal wave inside of her. Alessa felt herself being slowly overwhelmed by the pressure, as it built inside her with every movement of her double’s hand. She was losing herself in the sensations, helplessly unaware of what was going on around her. Her double’s hardened flesh hand moved up and down over her sex, delving into patterns, and overall doing her best to help Alessa reach her destination. The sensations gradually overwhelmed her, making her slowly tense in what she knew would be a monster torrent of sensations, until it was like an explosion of sensations suddenly took hold in her body. Alessa’s eyes widened in a panic and then she knew no more. Alessa cried out with her eyes shut tight, as her body arched back in a series of racking spasms. Her mouth was open in a soundless scream, and the double continued to give her the stimulation she so desperately craved and yet hated, never losing that grin of hers all throughout the process. Alessa poured into her panties once again, as her wetness spilled into her clothing. The double continued to stimulate her, roughly rubbing her sex until Alessa’s body finally stopped moving in the little quakes that had taken control of her for the past few moments.

Alessa hung limply in her double’s grasp. She was utterly exhausted, and would have fallen over if not for her double holding her in place with her burnt arms. It was only her double’s strong hold on her body that kept her from collapsing to the floor. She was sobbing quietly to herself, overwhelmed by the enormity of what had happened to her. Never had she undergone such humiliation and pain before, and it left her struggling to gather the shattered pieces of her soul. She was defeated. The ordeal that she had just undergone had sucked the life out of her, and taken every last bit of her energy out of her distraught, fully devastated body. If her double had chosen to kill her right now, Alessa would not have been able to resist. She was that exhausted, and distraught. Alessa almost wished that something would show up and kill her right now, so that she wouldn’t have to deal with the humiliation and despair she was facing right now, laying in her abusive double’s arms. Dark Alessa smiled at her, like she wasn’t quite finished with her yet.

Dark Alessa inserted her fingers into her. Alessa wondered what else she had planned for her. Dark Alessa hooked her fingers into her, like she was trying to pull on something, and then she felt a slight pressure that made her jump. Alessa looked down to see her clit and the surrounding flesh on her double’s fingers, and the flesh bleeding profusely onto the floor. Alessa’s mouth fell open in horror, and then she felt a searing pain. Alessa screamed as the pain spread throughout her, and she collapsed to the ground in a rush, holding her injured crotch. The fabric of her jeans was now bloody, and the flesh inside the garments had been ripped away, leaving a gaping hole that was gruesomely bleeding from the injury. Oh god…what had she done!? Dark Alessa smiled deviously at her, as if she didn’t quite realize the dire seriousness of what she had done. It was just a game to her. Alessa cradled her gruesome injury tenderly, feeling the blood seeping profusely through her fingers. Her mind was numb from the shock, trying to process the fact that she had been mutilated permanently. Oh god, it hurt…more than anything else she had ever felt in her life. Alessa curled into a ball, trying to prevent further injury from her double. Alessa looked up, and saw a ghastly sight. Her double had shed her clothing by now. She was naked, though it would be hard for someone to tell – the burns covered 100% of her body, rendering her skin a gruesome covering of charcoal black flesh protecting her flesh. Alessa almost wanted to run away and throw up, but the pain was preventing her from moving. Alessa was crying on the ground, completely overwhelmed by the insanely hideous pain that was now coursing through her body, and the shame of everything that had happened to her in the past few minutes.

Her double now stood over her. Alessa looked up and saw her double now had a pipe. So this was how it ended. It wasn’t exactly surprising; Alessa knew that she would bleed out in the next few minutes. So, she wasn’t scared by death. Still, the fact that her double was now going to beat her to death was the latest unwelcome surprise in a series of unfortunate things that had happened to her since she set foot in this room, in the past few minutes. This was going to be painful. Alessa knew the monster would likely aim for her cranium to incapacitate her with maximum efficiency, and the thought of having her skull cracked open was not a pleasant one for Alessa; it scared Alessa, and she was rarely scared by anything. She felt a melancholy feeling in her gut, one that was completely separate from the ordeal she had just endured. She had failed. _Mom, Dad…I’m sorry_ , she thought in despair. Alessa closed her eyes and waited for the end.

 

~

 

She wasn’t alone, despite what Alessa thought. Someone else was watching, and looking in horror at what her fatal mistake may have caused. She was in shock, and was finding herself repulsed by what was happening, and frantically trying to help Alessa in any way possible. She was absolutely helpless to help her, however. All she could do was watch.

 

~

 

Alessa was unmoving on the ground. Her double had laid down the pipe for a moment, and decided to have some fun with her before killing her. Apparently her double still wanted to humiliate her and torture her even further, although Alessa didn’t even know how that was possible. She had done things to her that were utterly humiliating, and Alessa now felt worse than she did before, if possible. But now she had picked up the pipe again and was readying for the end game. It was obvious she was going to kill her now, after all her ‘fun’. She had been violated, humiliated, and injured all in the span of a few minutes, and now it looked like it was going to come to an end for her. So this was how it ended. She had fallen into the trap this room set for her, been administered all its tortures and humiliation, and now she was going to be killed by her own dark feelings made flesh. She didn’t think it would end this way. The double was still grinning, with that horrible smile on her face. Damn her; damn her and that horrible expression on her face. Alessa closed her eyes and waited for the end.

The end never came.

Alessa opened one eye and looked up. A moment of waiting had passed. The blood was gone, and so were all the veins of the room. Her double was nowhere to be seen. Alessa looked around quickly, but the horrid double had simply disappeared, along with any other traces of the nightmare. There was no other self, no pain, and definitely no traces that she had ever been attacked. Alessa looked down, but her flesh was intact between her legs, and no blood whatsoever covering the material.

It took Alessa a moment to realize what had happened.

“Fucking hallucinations!” Alessa screamed, throwing aside her sword in a fit of fury. She couldn’t believe she had fallen for that. The strange traits of the room, the mirror and the way it reacted to her, the way she couldn’t get out; the signs were all there. She should have known it was just a hallucination. She felt a rampant fury and burning aggravation at the cruelty of this town, and how its manipulations ensnared her so thoroughly. God, why couldn’t they just leave her alone!? She was a good person; she didn’t torture anyone, she hadn’t raped anyone, and she hadn’t killed anybody without reasonable intent – she didn’t even drink! She had done everything possible to try to live her life in the best way possible, and yet this town still kept coming back to torture her again and again, tormenting her repeatedly with its horrors and manipulations of the mind. Why?! What had she ever done to deserve this? She was a good person; she didn’t deserve this. For fuck’s sake, she just wanted to be left alone. She just wanted to be left alone.

Alessa sat back on the ground. She should just get out of here. She was exhausted, and she didn’t know what had just happened. Where had that delusion come from? She didn’t know. And she wasn’t sure she wanted to know. But she looked at the mirror, and it was still there in all its gleaming glory.

Alessa made a decision. She grabbed her sword and rushed at the mirror, and brandishing her blade she sliced it straight at the center of the mirror. She struck hard at the mirror, embedding her sword in the reflective paneling. The mirror shattered into a thousand pieces, falling to the floor in a cascade. Alessa struck hard at the mirror, pouring all of her anger and fury at the situation, all of the frustration, and every last bit of emotion she had felt over the past day. She slashed repeatedly at the mirror, screaming and growling, pouring all of the fury bubbling in her body and all of the hatred she had accumulated in the past two days into the attack, and every last bit of emotion over everything that had happened to her into the effort of destroying this thing, until she could stand it no more, tearing down the shattered remains of the mirror. She kept at it until she had drained all of the energy from her body, purging herself of all the negative emotion, and the mirror lay in ruins at her feet.

Alessa wiped her brow and stepped back. There, now she felt better. The mirror was completely shattered, and she had torn down every single piece of it through sheer fury, the rest of them falling down from the vibrations. Alessa looked down at the remains. _Wow, I did all that?_ She thought in mild shock. Still, as a smirk played upon her lips, she couldn’t deny that it had felt good to pour her rage into the mirror like that. It was effective in purging her of all the negative emotion she had accumulated in the past two days.

Alessa left the room, leaving behind the nightmare in its infernal resting place.

Outside in the hall, Alessa backed down for a moment. She had left the nightmare behind in the room, but it was still bringing up some unpleasant memories. She needed a moment to recover. She collapsed down onto the floor, holding onto the metal grating with her grubby fingers. This place was getting to her. She needed to get out of here. She slowly came around, gathering her strength until she was able to stand again. She stretched her arms back, working out the kinks in her body as she righted herself. There, she was ready to proceed now.

Alessa looked down at the hallway. She had to figure out her next move. She shook her head. There were two other floors in the hospital, so she had to choose quickly. She was not looking forward to going down there. After all this, she wondered what else the Otherworld could throw at her. She ran to the elevator and pressed the button.

Inside the elevator, Alessa backed away. The gate came slamming down over the entry – it almost made Alessa jump, but she was used to it by now. Alessa looked at the buttons. Second or first floor – she guessed the second floor was the next destination. Alessa pressed the button and waited for the elevator to take her to her next nightmarish destination.

 

~

 

The elevator doors opened with a loud groan. Alessa carefully stepped out of the elevator, wielding her handgun ready for anything that came her way. She pulled out her map of the hospital and took a cursory glance at it, before stuffing it back into her backpack.

Alessa peeked carefully around the corner down the hall. There were no enemies around here, which was a good thing. There was no danger yet, though she would have to tread carefully.

She came upon a sight that baffled her. There was a large, smoky screen laid out in the corner of the hall. It was almost impossible to see through, and the fog cloudily obscured any activity behind it. Alessa stared in confusion at the obscure sight. What the hell was this? It sounded like there was a ruckus going on there, and all sorts of activity was taking place in there. Alessa didn’t know what was going on, and somehow she didn’t think she wanted to know. Still, she got a weird feeling when she passed by there. She decided it was probably better to move on.

There were two rooms that held something of interest at the end of the hall. Alessa went into the women’s locker room first. There was a white doctor’s robe hanging on a nearby wall, and no lockers on the left side of the room, oddly enough. Alessa wondered who’s it was. The answer was one that she surmised very quickly – Kaufmann’s. Even with her having killed him, a piece of him still remained in the Otherworld, taunting her with its presence. Figures. The Otherworld simply would not forget some of the things that had influenced it. As soon as she opened the door, a locker door in front of her began to open. The door slowly opened to reveal a creature that was stuffed into the locker, writhing wildly in a craze like some incarcerated animal. Alessa was nearly shocked enough to jump, until she realized the monster was behind a wire mesh of some kind and couldn’t get out. Alessa gradually released a sigh of relief, though she still remained cautious just in case it _tried_ to break out of there. Alessa took a close, examining look at the creature that was trapped in the locker behind the mesh. Wasn’t this the monster that had been following her around all this time? What the hell was it doing here? Alessa had thought it was the Red god, but no god would allow itself to be trapped here like this without dignity. How had it gotten trapped here like this? It certainly didn’t bode well for its intelligence, if it couldn’t even escape from a simple trap like this. Actually, it seemed rather pitiful, now that Alessa looked at it. She just couldn’t see this monster as threatening, no matter how much she tried. It was just too pathetic, even if it looked like it was going to jump out of the cage at any second. She rifled through the pockets of the robe, trying to ignore the unsettling monster. She wondered who had put it here? Even if it was Kaufmann’s, someone had to have brought it up here. Or was it just manifested by the Otherworld because of her memories? Alessa didn’t know, but she found a health drink in the pocket of the robe.

There was also a plastic bag in the nearby trash can. Alessa didn’t know what it could be used for, but an item like this wasn’t likely to be out of place. She took it anyway. Maybe she could use it to store some beef jerky.

The hallway outside was still clear. Alessa ducked into the men’s locker room. This was more like a locker room like she expected. There was a sound coming from inside one in the row of lockers, muffled by the metal door. The sound echoed very deep and unnaturally, sounding painfully loud in the atmosphere of the room. It almost sounded like a phone ringing in the locker. What the hell? Was there a phone in here? Alessa didn’t know what was going on, but she suddenly had a very concerning feeling about this. She was afraid to open the door to this particular container, but she had to find out what was going on. Alessa opened the locker door carefully, and saw a large older looking phone rusted all over laying at the foot of the locker. Was that a pay phone in there?!... Alessa furrowed her brow; this was getting more concerning by the minute, and she was really wanting to get out of here at the moment. Remembering what happened the last time she answered a phone, it wasn’t a positive notion. Still, Alessa knew she had to find out what was behind this. Something told her it was important. It went against all common sense, but she just couldn’t resist her curiosity. She picked up the phone and cautiously held the receiver up to her ear.

“Hello?” she answered uncertainly.

“Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you…” a lighter voice answered on the phone. “Happy birthday dear…” The voice trailed off, as if it was suddenly confused. “Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot your name,” the voice answered. The voice sounded lightly sarcastic, and was a little weird in tone. Until the end, that was, when it suddenly lapsed into genuine confusion. Alessa didn’t know what to make of it.

Alessa stared at the phone. What the hell? “I’m afraid you’re mistaken. Today’s not my birthday,” Alessa replied, not knowing anything else to say.

“I’m not mistaken!” the voice protested, suddenly offended. The voice was weird sounding, and was definitely male. It was a little creepy. “Today is your 27th birthday. I know when your birthday is, young lady. Don’t argue with me! Now tell me your name, so I can wish you a proper birthday. You’re missing out on the fun, my dear,” the voice replied snidely, sounding like it was nearing the limit of its patience.

With some annoyance, Alessa held the phone out from her ear. “Who the hell are you?!” Alessa demanded, feeling her own annoyance growing. What was up with this asshole, and why was he trying to play mind games with her? She knew it wasn’t her birthday! _Damn it!_

The voice retaliated. “That’s none of your concern! And you’re missing the point! Today is your 13th birthday! I want to wish you a proper, happy birthday. Is that so wrong? Why are you resisting this so thoroughly? Don’t you know your true self? It baffles me to know you don’t want me to wish you a proper, happy birthday,” the voice said, sounding sad. It was strange. The voice sounded like it was both mocking her, and genuinely trying to get her to go along with its harebrained idea.

Alessa ignored the part about her true self. That was just more psychological bullshit on the part of the town trying to manipulate her. She focused instead on the tone, and its peculiar voice. Alessa thought about all the people she knew who were on this journey with her. Was this _Vincent_?

“Is this someone I know?” Alessa demanded.

“I’m not anyone you know, you wretched hag,” the voice answered. “I’m not Leonard. That’s the murderer’s name, not my name. I’m not your beloved Stanley either. He’s underground now. His new name is “#7”,” the voice replied snidely.

Alessa pursed her mouth in a line. She wasn’t expecting that. Alessa bristled at being called a “hag” – she was young and attractive-looking! Damn it. Still, she ignored that. Alessa’s heart did a little dip as she heard the phone caller’s words about Stanley – she had hoped, despite all hints to the obvious, that it wasn’t true. She had seen a body in Room S7, but that could have been anybody. But now she knew that it was true. Alessa felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. He had died because he loved her. And Leonard had killed him for it. He was still a stalker, and still creepy as hell, don’t get her wrong, but Alessa definitely didn’t like the idea that anyone had died out of loving her. And it also confirmed that Leonard was dangerous. Alessa wasn’t too concerned; she was reasonably sure that she could easily take him with her weapons and skills. However, it would have been easier if he was a defenseless old man, and offered no resistance. That way, she could have tortured him all the more slowly, sweetly. Alessa focused on what the mysterious caller was saying. She could iron out the details later.

“But don’t worry about that now. It’s time to celebrate your birthday!” the voice went on. Alessa found herself wondering who the voice was. It sounded like they were calling from the depths of hell. Alessa also found herself annoyed at the cheerful tone in the caller’s voice.

Why was this such a laughing matter?

“Why don’t you come up here and talk to me? I’m sure I have a nice birthday present waiting for you,” Alessa said, fingering her magnum as she replied snidely. She was serious, too. She would fully shoot this man if he came up here and confronted her in person. She had way too much to do to be bothered by some freak, who insisted on doing nothing but taunting her. Murder wasn’t a thing she took lightly – but she would consider it for this man.

The voice responded. “I don’t think so. I’m not stupid; I’m not giving you a chance to _kill_ me on _your birthday_!” the voice said, smugly. Alessa growled under her breath, holding her handgun tightly in her hands. There went her plan, for all its intent; damn it, he was onto her. Alessa really wished she had a way to strike back at this irritant, but it looked like she was going to have to sit back and listen to this.

“Now, I have a present for you,” the voice said ominously. Alessa leaned in closer to the phone, gripping her handgun in case some monster came barreling through the door as a response.

“Which do you prefer? To give pain or to receive it?” the voice said carefully, making sure Alessa understood every word. “You can have the one you hate the most. Though…” The voice stopped, talking nastily all of a sudden. “Perhaps you would prefer your mother, with a bow wrapped around her waist?” the voice taunted, suddenly sounding like it was amusing itself greatly at the thought of that. There was no hint or ounce of compassion or empathy in its tone.

“You motherfucker…” Alessa muttered darkly, thinking of her mother still in pieces back at her house. She was about to give the voice a lashing that would send it screaming for the hills in fear. How dare they mock her pain? She was going to have vengeance for this. But the voice cut her off before she had a chance to respond. It wasn’t going to give her any chance to respond to its claims, it seemed.

“Happy birthday to you!” the voice stated, laughing mockingly. The voice hung up the phone. Before Alessa could respond, he was gone.

Alessa stared at the phone in her hand. Well, that was disturbing. She wondered about what had just happened. The voice almost sounded like a clown, but there was nothing jovial about him. Instead he was mean-spirited and nasty. In fact, the voice almost sounded like a threatening message. Just what the hell was the point of that? Was she supposed to be afraid of what was going to happen next? She wasn’t sure what that was supposed to be about.

Alessa looked around the base of the phone, inside the bottom of the locker, and was in for a shock. The phone wasn’t plugged in! Then how in the world had he called her?! She had assumed there was some sort of cord running under the lockers connected to the phone, to taunt her when she expectedly answered the set-up, but apparently there was nothing but the dead end of a broken cord. Well, it wasn’t a surprise, given all that she had seen. She had pulled a similar trick once, long ago. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more she wondered why she was even surprised in the first place. It fit with the rules and atmosphere of this place.

Well, she wasn’t going to be intimidated if that was the case. She had better things to do than sit around being afraid of something happening.

Alessa threw down the phone onto the base at the bottom of the locker. Fucking pervert. Who did he think he was, mocking her painful ordeals? Alessa wished he had come up here, so she could have had a chance to shoot his ass with her handgun. Lousy parasite; probably working with the Order too, in some capacity or form. If she ever did meet this guy face to face, all bets were off.

Alessa stood up from the rusted metal floor. That was a waste of time. It was probably better not to think about it, or try to figure out its meaning. She would probably wrack her brain trying to ascertain the meaning behind these events. In any case, she had best leave it behind. It was time to go. She had wasted enough time standing around here.

Before she got to the door though, she stopped.

Alessa turned around, and staring at the phone with a grim frown on her face, she shot the phone with her handgun. The accursed phone exploded into electronically fried chunks, splattering little pieces of black all over the locker and the floor. Alessa smirked deviously at the display of destruction she had undertaken. Well, he wouldn’t be calling again, would he? That felt good.

Alessa left the locker room, feeling a certain sense of satisfaction despite the disturbing call.

As she exited the locker room, Alessa’s thoughts turned towards the chamber which had formerly been the women’s locker room, her mind still on the creature trapped inside the locker within. At first, she had been somewhat afraid it would burst out of the locker and attack her. That feeling changed to pity at its predicament, and then shock as she gazed at it further. It was the same being she had witnessed strangling some kind of monster at the shopping mall elevator, and only minutes earlier, turning some sort of valve before she had entered this horrific version of the hospital. 

_What could it be?_ Alessa asked herself as she walked down the decayed hallway. Could this mysterious thing be the angel named Valtiel, who would watch over the Mother of God according to the scriptures she had read as a child? Was it responsible for the nightmarish shifts? Alessa had heard of Valtiel as a child. The Valtiel sect worshipped a creature named Valtiel, appropriately so. It was their patron protector, and was supposedly the right hand of God, according to their scriptures. Alessa hadn’t ever really thought he existed, to be honest, but he was an important part of the Order’s detailed lore, and she was expected to learn it like an obedient little servant. But now she wondered if she’d had the misfortune of walking into the creature personally, against all odds. It fit all the criteria that matched the description, and the description of its personality. That birthday phone call in the men’s locker room wasn’t very reassuring either. It had almost sounded like a threat, only she wondered at what worse thing could possibly happen to her at this point, short of getting killed. 

Her mental debate was cut off when some familiar scampering sounds caught her attention, ones which made her heart sink at their meaning.

Out of all the creatures she had encountered thus far, the lizard-like beasts that crawled on the ground unsettled her the most. They moved very fast in groups of 2 or more and took considerable effort to kill. Worse, they seemed to take a perverse enjoyment in knocking her down and toying with her. Alessa sensed that wasn’t the full extent of their aggression, and it worried her more than she would care to admit. She shuddered to think what a large group of these monsters would do to her. 

Alessa moved to the back of the hall to give herself some space between them. By the sounds that were heading towards her, this was going to be a nightmare. Unfortunately, a large group of them was precisely what was heading for her. They moved even faster than usual, barely giving her time to consider between fighting with her magnum or running to the shelter of one of the former locker rooms. She fired several blasts at the approaching fiends, trying to take them out as fast as she could or to at least buy herself some time. Two of them halted their advance to twitch violently in pain, but two others savagely rushed over their injured counterparts, determined to reach their prey. Alessa shot them as well, putting a stop to their approach. 

However, the previous two creatures had recovered by now, and reached their target. A vicious swipe at her legs by one of them harshly knocked Alessa to the ground. Losing her grip on her magnum, she panicked as ever increasing noises indicated there had to be at least four more of the damn things in the area. 

The two creatures wasted little time climbing on her. Alessa frantically tried to shake them off, but their highly erratic motions and unexpected strength prevented her from doing so. One of them tried to immobilize her legs, pinning them with its arms while its covered mouth futilely tried to gnaw at her shins. The other took her upper body, trapping her arms with the webbed, hand-like structures on the end of its upper limbs. To her great disgust, it restrained her hands with one limb while it ran the other over her body. The deformed appendage groped her chest, stomach, and private lower region as much as its unusual shape would allow it, all the while emitting the hideous noise that sounded much like the creature’s version of mocking laughter. 

It was utterly humiliating, and Alessa had taken enough of it. The monster’s sick treatment of her body had provided her with an opportunity to take action. Managing to briefly shake off the wild grip of its left appendage, Alessa reached quickly reached into her backpack and pulled out the switchblade she kept there for self-defense. Without hesitating, she stabbed it into the perverse monster’s eye, grotesquely rupturing the organ and piercing its brain. 

The thing wasn’t dead yet, though, and the brutal wound seemed to drive it into a crazed frenzy. Thrashing about wildly enough to send its counterpart several feet away, the dying creature struck several hard blows on Alessa’s torso. A particularly harsh hit between her legs made her want to cry out in pain, but instead she focused on pushing the monster off her. Recovering her magnum, she ran back to the room where she had received the bizarre birthday call before anything further happened. She could already hear the sounds of more monsters approaching, stirred up by the tantrum of the one her knife had fatally wounded. 

Once inside the room, she leaned against one of the rusty lockers, collapsing softly to the metal grating that served as a floor. She hugged her knees to her bruised chest, feeling shocked and physically ill at what had just occurred. It was repulsive by any sane person’s standards, and to Alessa, a tangible indication that her situation could indeed become worse. It hurt physically and mentally, making her want to curl into a fetal position and sob in despair. 

It wasn’t fair. What had she ever done to deserve this hell? All she had wanted was to feel accepted and loved by those around her. Instead, a world of suffering had been cruelly thrust onto her shoulders, all in the name of God. Now, it seemed it wasn’t even enough for her personal demons to be made flesh. They had to degrade her as well, molesting her in an attempt to leave her bereft of dignity. Alessa felt horribly violated and used. 

Once again, the birthday caller’s words rang in her ears.

“Which do you prefer? To give pain, or to receive it? You can have the one you hate the most.”

Pain. She had already received such an overwhelming amount of it in her short life. The small amount of solace she had found with her parents and her very few friends couldn’t come close to outweighing it. And it seemed even more was headed her way. Perhaps this was the meaning of her life, Alessa reflected sadly. To suffer more than any person before her ever had. 

Now she did cry, tears sliding down her cheeks as she lowered her head and wept at the misery of her existence. 

 

~

 

Alessa didn’t know how much time had passed while she remained in the decayed locker room. She had sobbed to her heart’s content, until the tears had finally ceased and she could begin to collect herself. She picked up her magnum with trembling hands, not anticipating having to go out into the hallway again. Two very horrific incidents thus far and she had only covered two floors of the nightmarish hospital. Still, she knew she couldn’t stay in that room forever.

Making sure the gun was fully loaded, Alessa took a deep breath and slowly opened the door. She was prepared to run for her life if necessary, but she wasn’t expecting the situation that confronted her. The chilling noises emitted by those horrid beasts were gone. Walking ahead slowly, she noticed that the black smoke had cleared from the mysterious chamber. There was nothing behind its glass walls. Alessa wondered just what had been going on behind that smoke.

As she reached the end of the corridor, she saw precisely why the place was so quiet.

The slurping monsters were all dead. That wasn’t all. The creatures’ bodies lay in pieces on the floor, making it evident that they had been savagely killed. Something far stronger than them had bludgeoned them brutally, literally tearing them apart in the process. A great amount of blood was pooled on the floor, spread out across a sizeable area thanks to the numbers of fiends that had been present when she had fled in terror.

Alessa raised a hand to cover her mouth and nose, feeling nauseous from the hideous sight. The foul stench still penetrated her nostrils, making her want to heave in revulsion. By sheer will, she managed to restrain herself and make her way towards the elevator. 

What manner of being could have done this? Alessa asked herself, as she stepped over the strewn limbs and organs. Whatever it was, she was sure she did not want to encounter it. 

Suddenly, she remembered the strange creature which had been held prisoner in the men’s locker room. Temporarily foregoing her disgust, she rushed back to the women’s locker room, wanting to confirm what she suspected she would discover there. Opening the rusted door and aiming her magnum just in case, her notion was proven correct. The mesh covering on the single locker in the room had been violently ripped off the structure, the only sign of what had formerly been straining inside there. The being had obviously escaped into the outside hallway after her brief ordeal, slaughtering the demons lurking there. The monstrous massacre that she walked into was the remains of what the creature had unleashed on them, and the scattered limbs were evidence of its slaughter.

Alessa stared at the overwrought destruction with numb wonder. It seemed she had a protector here.

Whether that turned out to be horrible for her in the long run remained to be seen.


	21. Surreal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Disclaimer: Konami owns Silent Hill.**
> 
>  
> 
> **AN: Warning: Disturbing content ahead.**
> 
>  
> 
> **Happy Halloween, readers!!**

**Chapter 18: Surreal**

**Alternate Brookhaven - Part 2**

 

Alessa descended into the second floor hallway. She had left behind the room north of here, where that creature had escaped from. The idea of Valtiel watching over her was both an enticing one, but it was also disturbing. While she was relieved to have a protector here that would make things easier, that meant the creature had been tracking her since the very beginning. If the creature was indeed looking after her, that meant that he was watching her every move. She didn’t know if she could trust Valtiel, or whether it was trustworthy for her, or whether it was moving her toward some kind of trap. Alessa wasn’t comfortable knowing that some creature out there was watching her every maneuver. What was its purpose here? Alessa wasn’t sure whether she should be avoiding it, or trying to seek it out to get closer to it to learn more about it.

She headed towards the elevator that would take her down to the basement. The gate slammed down behind her over the entrance with a bang. After pressing the button, the elevator gradually began its descent down to the basement level.

Suddenly, a strange sound began to emanate from her radio speakers. It sounded like the static one would get from a radio transmission, and it was gradually growing louder and louder, blaring from the tiny speakers on her radio. But it wasn’t like the static she got when there were monsters nearby. Alessa knew there weren’t any monsters nearby, so it wasn’t that. What the hell was this? The transmission grew and grew, until it gradually clarified. Suddenly, a loud voice boomed from the speakers, making Alessa jump completely by surprise.

“Hi there, everybody, thanks for tuning in. Welcome to another exciting edition of “Trick or Treat”!” a loud announcer’s voice announced from the tinny confines of the speakers. There was a sound of audible cheering coming from the background, as if this was being broadcast from a studio somewhere and there was a complete crowd in the background on the set to cheer him on.

Alessa frowned to herself in befuddlement. What the hell was this?

“Here you either answer the questions correctly and win a great prize, or fail to answer correctly and receive the punishment,” the announcer said cheerily with an ominous tone in his voice as some cheeky game show-type music played on in the background. The crowd cheered excitedly once again, like they were watching the most exciting show ever.

Alessa frowned to herself in disgust. She didn’t have time for this.

She slammed the radio down against the floor of the elevator. The static faded out, as the mechanical device was jarred from the hard impact on its shell. Suddenly, the transmission returned full force, as if absolutely nothing had happened at all.

“I apologize for that, folks. As I was saying, you either answer the questions correctly and win a great prize, or fail to answer correctly and receive the punishment! It all depends on you.” The crowd gave a loud cheer. “And our returning contestant today is one Miss Alessa Gillespie! Welcome back, my dear. We have missed you for far too long,” the voice said, in what seemed to be a mock-wistful tone. The crowd murmured a general tone of agreement, apparently behind the sentiment.

Alessa groaned in disgusted frustration. Fine. She would play their little game and answer whatever questions they gave her, and then she would get the hell out of here. Maybe she would get something nice out of it in the end. And what did he mean by returning contestant? She picked up the radio and listened in closely to the transmission.

“Okay, let’s get down to business. In the distinguished area of old Silent Hill, near the traditional Midwich Elementary School, is an old water works that leads to the sewer system of the area. Near that water works is a grand roadway that leads to the resort area of the town. If you follow that path all the way through, it leads you to the great bastion of amusement in the town, the great Lakeside Amusement Park! The Question is: What is the name of that road?”

“One: Bachman Road.”  
“Two: Bloch Street.”  
“Three: Nathan Avenue.”

“Are you sure you got that? Okay, quickly on to question number two. In the neighborhood of South Vale, there is an abandoned old coal mine. This coal mine was instrumental in the early rise of the town, and allowed it to be transformed into a resort town after its riches had dried up. What is the name of that mine?”

“One: Toluca Coal Mine.”  
“Two: Shepherd’s Glen Coal Mine.”  
“Three: Wiltse Coal Mine.”

“Now for our third and final question. A few years ago, a local miscreant from the Order managed to launch a campaign and get himself elected to the city council. This man went on to abuse the power of his position, using it to kill his enemies, manipulate the town to the benefits of the Order, and peddle his drug distributions all across the town. The third and final question is: What was the name of this terribly minded man?”

“One: Jimmy Stone.”  
“Two: Toby Archbolt.”  
“Three: Scott Fairbanks.”

“Well, that’s the last of our questions. Have you got it all figured out? When you know the answers, head to the storeroom on the 3rd floor to collect your prizes! But be careful. If you’re wrong…” the announcer laughed sinisterly. The ominous tone was definitely not something the girl listening liked. “Well then everybody, thanks for tuning in. See you again sometime, on the next exciting edition of “Trick or Treat”! Bye bye!” There was cheering as the announcer departed, with people hollering and clapping.

The transmission fizzled out, leaving only silence in the elevator.

Alessa shook her head. This town was getting weirder with every passing year. Once she had a degree of partial control over the town, able to manipulate it and control its textures to her whims. Now it seemed the factors of the town were running amok all over the place, with strange things occurring randomly that made no sense whatsoever. And Alessa had the feeling that there were things in here that even she didn’t know about. It was all surreal, and very, very disturbing. Alessa pondered if she even wanted to know what was motivating the town now, or if she was better off not knowing.

The occurrence just now was an example. Alessa pondered what it even meant. It sounded like the transmission was coming from the depths of Hell itself.

Groaning inside, she let it go. Alessa guessed she would have to roll around by the storeroom on the third floor on her return trip. Maybe she would get something worthwhile out of it, if nothing else.

Alessa shook her head in disbelief. God damn, that elevator ride had taken forever, while listening to that stupid radio game! It seemed like she had been trapped for 15 minutes in this elevator, listening to that twisted host and his transmission. She settled down, knowing it was pointless to fight about it with this town.

Sigh.

 

~

 

Alessa entered into the morgue.

This was disturbing. She immediately shuddered all over, as the air hit her with a full force of atmosphere. There were corpses all over, laid out on stretchers made from thin metal, covered with sheets. The smell of the dead bodies was overwhelming. It was pungent with a sickeningly sweet odor. The smell was everywhere. It wasn’t enough to make Alessa cover her mouth and nose, but it was getting there. They weren’t recently dead, then. Alessa thought about what that phone caller told her about Stanley being #7 here now. Even though these were just ordinary people, she hated the thought of a man ending up down here, like this. Where did they all come from? Were they all people who got dragged into the Otherworld, against their will, made into corpses, and put on display here on these slabs? Or were these just the victims of the hospital, the people who had been brutally tortured and murdered by the doctors and nurses here, after being locked up here?

There were rows of slabs lined up, each with a different number. They were twelve in all, and they were covered with a sheet that was laid out over their bodies. That was okay; Alessa didn’t want to know what injuries were under them anyway. Alessa wove in through the rows of corpses, trying to find the reason why she had been brought here. Why was this place so important? The elevator wouldn’t have made this place accessible unless there was something important here. What was she supposed to find here? She ran up to the wall on the far side of the place, and saw what she needed to open. There was a lock on the wall, and she saw that it was a half-oval segment separate from the wall, with finely worn edges around it. What was this place? Well, whatever it was, it was clear that she had to open it, and there was something important inside. She looked up and saw that there was a clue to this puzzle inlaid on the peeling wall. There was a series of squares laid out like a grid, one for each corpse, and there were Roman numerals in the squares: I, IV, II, and III.

Alessa paused for a moment. What the hell was this? She knew she was being told the answer to some puzzle, but she couldn’t quite figure it out. It took her a moment to process the knowledge. Once she had, she suddenly knew what she had to do.

Alessa ran back to the slabs taking a look at them like she hadn’t done before. There were twelve of them in all, although two of them were empty; the ones in the middle upfront. She hadn’t noticed that before. She noticed that each of them had numbers on them, and they were corresponding to each of the corpses. That gave her an idea. She went to the slab that the phone caller said was Stanley’s. She hated to get close to it, but she had to do what was necessary. She noted there was a “7” on it. Good, that one was down. The next slab was to the right of it, and that contained an “8”. That was the fourth number in the sequence. Up next came the slab right above this one. That contained a “4”. The last slab was the one to the middle right of the room. Alessa had to jog to that one and she remained a little breathless, since she didn’t want to waste any time. She read the sign and discovered that this one had a “6” attached to it. Alessa thought it over in her mind. Stanley’s slab was the first one in the number, and that contained the number “7”. The slab to the upper right of it was the second one in the sequence, and that one was the number “4”. The third digit in the sequence was the slab to the right, which was the one possessing #”6”. Lastly, the slab to the bottom had the number “8”. Alessa put it all together, and she realized the code was “7468”! Yes, great thinking on her part, she thought to herself. She hurried to enter the code, wanting to get out of here as fast as possible. She turned the numbers on the combination lock, and sure enough there was the telltale click indicating the lock had been unlocked. Yes! Alessa pulled open the compartment and winced when she saw what was inside. The smell was what hit her first, a smell of burning and death, multiplied by lingering decay going on for years.

There was a key inside. Alessa winced as she saw the ashes past it. Oh. This was a crematorium. Alessa got a sinking feeling, as she realized what this must have been used for. _Creepy._ It reminded her of the Tall Man.

Alessa grabbed the burnt key and stuffed it in her pocket. There was nothing left inside the furnace except a bunch of ashes. She really wanted to get out of this place.

There was nothing else to do here, so she was free to leave the place. She was thankful for that. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could stand to be here. This place was oppressive, dark, and moldy. She was surrounded by corpses, and the laid out sheets covering them. The rotten flesh surrounding her, and the reminders of death at every turn; ah, it was definitely not what she needed right now.

Alessa tapped the button for the elevator. Suddenly, she felt the air growing cold around her, and the feeling of something changing in the room. Alessa turned around, searching for the source of the disturbance. She looked around for what was causing this to happen; she had her gun and was ready to fire if necessary. Her heart almost stopped at what she saw. Stanley was getting up. The corpse on #7 had sat up straight, and its legs were now dangling over the gurney. Alessa’s eyes widened, not able to believe what she was seeing. What was this? He slid the sheet off him as he sat up on the stretcher, and placed his feet on the floor with a sickening thud. Alessa hit the button for the elevator again, before turning back to stare at the sight of her impossible suitor come to life, in this impossibly horrifying scenario. She looked back, and she was shocked. Stanley was slowly moving towards her. His heart had been cut out, and there was a circling ring of blood surrounding it. He almost seemed to be holding it, but there was nothing in his hands as he reached out towards her. He was pale, and the skin had taken on a graying-greenish hue, as befitting of a corpse. His genitals were missing. Not that she wanted to contemplate it, but Alessa almost would have preferred it if there was some telltale sign of them having been ripped off, rather than the smooth skin that lingered around his groin. It was unnatural, and disturbing. Oh God, what was going on here? This couldn’t really be happening. The face was stretched across in a taut manner, in a zombified grin, smiling in agony as he reached out towards her with arms spread aloft.

“H-H-Heather…” the corpse rasped in a strained, withered voice. “Heather…” he walked slowly towards her, reaching out towards the woman he had pursued in life.

Alessa frantically tapped the button to the elevator. Oh God, where the hell was the elevator? What the hell was taking it so long? The corpse was slowly shambling towards her, shuffling its decayed feet along on the ground with horrid slaps of flesh. Alessa looked at the corpse and knew she had to shoot, but even with the hideous display of revulsion that was approaching her, she still couldn’t bring herself to shoot the man. She buried her face in her arms, hiding from the air above as she readied for what was about to happen. Stanley reached out to her, and she could almost feel the sensation of his hands as he went to embrace her; it was an ethereal, ghostly touch that sent shivers throughout her body, surrounding her with its presence. Alessa was ready to scream as she was being smothered by Stanley’s overwhelming presence, bearing down on her like a cloth being draped over her skin. Suddenly, the whole atmospheric feeling disappeared.

Alessa looked up at the room. She looked around the room for anything out of place. Stanley’s corpse was still lying on the gurney, covered by a blanket, just where she’d left it. There was no sign of him moving, or getting up from the gurney. There was nothing in the room, or any sign that there was something amiss just a few moments before. Everything was exactly as it was.

Alessa stared at the morguish room. What the hell was that? Was Stanley’s soul really in here, talking to her…? She blinked her eyes rapidly, trying to adjust to the new reality of the place, or determine if she really was suffering some sort of hallucination.

The ding of the elevator announced the arrival of the compartment behind her. Alessa hurried into the elevator without a second thought. She couldn’t get out of here fast enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **AN2:** Yes, Alessa did know Stanley, once, in a far away place and time. She just doesn't remember it.


	22. Vengeance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Disclaimer: Konami belongs to Silent Hill. Oh, it's the other way around. :P**
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  **AN:** If abuse serves as a trigger for you, beware of this chapter, particularly towards the end. Otherwise, read on. ;-)

**Chapter 19: Vengeance**

**Alternate Brookhaven - Part 3**

 

Alessa stepped into the first floor. That incident in the basement had left her shaken, but now it was time to move on. This was ground zero for the activity in the hospital. Whatever else she had to find in the hospital, she could feel it was here. She could hear the monsters scurrying on in the background. There seemed to be an inordinate amount of them here. She had to be careful. The corridor of the level was pitch black, and even darker than the third floor.

She didn’t place any beef jerky on the ground, since there didn’t seem to be any of the slurper monsters. Alessa sneakily proceeded down the corridor, watching for any signs of danger. It didn’t take long until she encountered her first nurse. The nurse came around the corner to launch herself at her, swinging a pipe and reaching out for her with one bloody hand. The sounds of her heavy breathing and labored steps gave it away to Alessa’s ears, before she even saw it. Alessa slashed at the nurse’s chest with her sword, and reeling back, she sliced it again at her shoulder, sinking the degenerate nurse to the ground. She stomped on the nurse’s back once to end its miserable life.

Alessa wiped her brow with her forearm. This was getting difficult. She was running out of energy, and still so much longer to go. She was getting accustomed to the monsters, a little too much so. They no longer intimidated her, and they were easy to predict. She was killing them easily, although she wondered about that, if she was doing it a little too much so. It shouldn’t be this easy, right? She should feel something when killing these creatures in self-defense, right? Or was it all right, since she was doing it in self-defense? Even if it was in self-defense, she should feel something, right? Some semblance of regret, a feeling of loathing or disgust, anything! She didn’t know, and she supposed maybe she didn’t want to know. Hmm.

Was she really that twisted?

She spotted the doors leading to the outside. In her Otherworld years ago, the doors in the hospital had contained a chamber that was filled with a useful item for someone to find, but the doors here were locked. She ducked into the door on her left. The room was a small compartment, compared to what was outside. Thankfully, there was no nurse waiting for her inside. That would have been the last thing she needed right now.

Alessa looked around the room. There was nothing in the room except file cabinets and junk, accumulated in the corner. Alessa frowned to herself in confusion. What was the point of this room? Or maybe it was just showing that the entire hospital had been transformed, and some rooms that were insignificant were just showing off the process. Maybe there was no point.

She exited the room and left to go further in the hallway. She ventured into the darkness of the main corridor, remaining wary of any threats. There was only one other room in the area that was open, and that was the last at the end of the hall. Making a left, Alessa found herself face-to-face with that chance for something significant. Fitting up her handgun, Alessa slowly opened the door and waited for any threat.

She scanned her eyes around the room, searching for anything of interest. There was a table right in front of her, with other medical knick knacks scattered around the room. There was an I.V. in the corner, which immediately sent a shiver up her body. Alessa spotted a group of needles to the right of the table. Ugh, that was gross. The syringes looked dirty and well used. Ugh, that was even worse than before. She was definitely not touching those, that was for sure. That was an awful lot of drugs in this room, Alessa thought. It didn’t look like they had been used with regular medicine, if her meaning was clear. This place was disgusting. Or maybe it was just her. Alessa spotted a letter lying on top of the table. Her eyes lit up as she realized it was about Leonard. Leonard! She picked up the letter and hurried to read it, wondering if this could give her any further insight into her enemy.

_Dr Midkiff:_  
Please use extra caution with the patient in room 312.  
He should still have his Religious freedom here in the hospital,  
but he shouldn't push his faith on others.  
I'm a victim too.  
Rumor has it he got here by stabbing someone over  
a religious dispute.  
Please be careful. 

_R Crosby_

_P.S It looks like the rumor was true, according to_  
the head nurse.  
I do think he's a good person otherwise  
though --- easy to deal with. 

Alessa put down the letter. So this was worse than she thought. Leonard wasn’t just an abuser and a pervert, he was a full-blown psychopath. Yeah, a good person. A good person didn’t stab someone over religion. Or judge people on their sexuality, as she knew some religious people did. They didn’t try to impose their religious views on you and try to force you to live up to their standards, at all costs. Being religious didn’t automatically make you a good person; in fact, some times it made you a monster. Alessa frowned at the thought. It made her angry. She gripped the paper she held in her hand, crumbling it into a ball. She needed to kill this man. By God-given right, she needed to kill this man. The world had suffered enough at the hands of this man, and Claudia had suffered enough, even if she didn’t know it. Not that she particularly cared what that wretched hag thought at the moment, but it was the principal of the thing.

…And there was that damned sign again. Although here, it kind of looked like it fit, Alessa thought to herself. This place was surrounded by evil and was corrupt, perverted, and decaying. It made a perfect place for a sign of a mystical alignment to appear. Alessa still wished she could figure it out. What did it mean exactly? She got the feeling it was something from her past that she knew very well, but she couldn’t remember it. Alessa put her hand to her forehead trying to recall the information while she strained, but the memories just wouldn’t come to her. She wanted to touch the symbol with her hand, but she had no idea what kind of effect would ensue so she left it alone.

There was nothing else left in the room. She exited the rusted exam room, and left behind that disgusting letter. With each room that she took down, she was getting closer and closer to Leonard. Her heart was starting to beat a little faster. It was almost time. The time had come for Leonard to pay for his crimes, and she was rapidly hurtling towards that destiny. Okay, so maybe destiny was a bit too much, but she was going to make sure that Leonard paid for what he did. She wondered what it would be like, whether it would be a cold killing of her hated enemy, or whether she would be unable to control her emotions and unleash a tidal wave of rage against her opponent. Even she didn’t know how she was going to react at this point when she saw him. She had a lot of emotions stored inside of her from all these years, and one way or another she was going to deal with it. Leonard’s life would be the prize for that.

As she left the chamber, she realized she had been in the exam room. That was some exam room, with its syringes full of dirty crap and blood-stained rusted walls. It was kind of barren for an exam room, too. She wondered what an exam comprised of in this place. She doubted it was an ordinary medical exam. More like a torture session most likely, she thought to herself. Probably she didn’t want to know.

Alessa ran down the hall, navigating through the darkness easily now that she was familiar with the way. The end near the exam room had been blocked off by a wire fence-like barrier, so she couldn’t go around to the front of the hall; she had to go all the way back the way she came, around the elevator. Alessa ran all the way back to the beginning in search of the next challenge, when her heart almost stopped at what she saw. There was a nurse right ahead of her, and she had a gun in her hand. Where the hell had she come from?! The nurse turned at the sound of someone in the area, and Alessa knew she had to act quickly. She ran up to the nurse and slashed at the decayed creature with her sword, before the nurse had a chance to aim her gun. It would have taken too long to aim with her gun properly and ensure that she had a right shot that would take her down instantly, without the chance of the nurse getting a shot inside. Alessa slashed at the nurse again and buried the metal blade in her chest, causing her to cry out and taking her down. Alessa looked at the gun in her hand and wondered if she could take it for her own. Something told her it would be a very bad idea to take it from her hand, however. For some reason, she had the feeling the guns were meant for them and them alone. She wondered if they were cursed, or would cause grave misfortune to those who wielded them.

Alessa stared at the blade of the sword in her hand. The blade was stained red with crimson blood, from all the fights she had been in. She knew she needed to wipe it with something; it was staining her shirt, her backpack, but she didn’t have time to clean it right now. She didn’t really care; she had better things to do right now. How many creatures had she killed on her journey with this blade? Too many to count. She was turning into quite the serial killer, she thought to herself wryly, yet she didn’t mind. She was doing it to survive, and she knew that it demanded her absolute focus to pull off.

There wasn’t much of a choice. She wasn’t going to feel bad for doing what she had to, to survive.

Alessa suddenly remembered the plastic bag she had in her backpack! There was only one possible thing she could scoop with it, and it wasn’t one Alessa wanted to ponder. She may have been making a mistake, but the blood on the third floor hospital room was the only thing she could imagine using the bag for. She decided to take the risk. She didn’t know what it would be used for, but it was probably something important later on. If she had guessed wrong about the whole thing, she would just empty out the bag and use it for something else.

Once she had filled the bag with the blood, Alessa moved on to her next destination. She had cringed and fought with the disgust all the way, but she had done it. She had tried to grip the bag around the edges and around the blood, but she had still gotten some blood on her fingertips. Yuck. She used a health drink to wash her hands. Alessa hated to waste one on such a frivolous purpose, but she was not going to walk around with bloody hands, thank you very much. That was just disgusting, and who knew what was in there. Some type of disease, no doubt. She felt dirty enough, being in this place. It was like an atmospheric type of griminess, the way it clung to her clothes and wouldn’t let go. She shuddered to think of what the air was like in here. Enough of that already, though. Now she had something else to focus on. Alessa remembered the quiz she had heard on the radio. The narrator had said the prizes were in the storeroom on the third floor. It looked like she was heading there next.

She went through the weird room with the thing hanging in there and around the corridor. She still had no idea what that thing was, and she probably didn’t want to know. She had this strange fear that it would open up and moths would come out of it and try to eat her; devour her alive. She knew it was bizarre, but that’s what she felt like. That was what moths did, after all; hang inside clothes and wait for someone to bother them, wasn’t it? This looked too much like the cloth bunches where a moth might be hiding, ready to pounce.

Alessa crept outside the door to the third floor storeroom. Oh God, when the announcer said it was the third floor storeroom, she didn’t realize it was the mirror room! The memories of that terrible experience came flooding back, bombarding her mind with a thousand terrible images. It was the place where she had been ( _raped_ ) attacked, and she was standing right outside the semblance of it! It was an awful scenario, but she had to do this. She had vowed to find whatever was in there, and chances were the radio host wouldn’t let her off so easily, if she backed down. Alessa held up the gun and aimed it at the door. Oh God, what was she doing? She couldn’t go into this place again; that would be an absolute nightmare. She would be attacked again. She was going to get killed again. She slowly opened the door and readied herself to fire at what was inside. Alessa counted down in her mind. _One._ _Two._ She got ready to fire. _Three._ Alessa swung the door open and looked inside. To her shock, the mirror and the accompanying basin were missing. There were shelves now occupying the layout of the space, and a locker had been added to the assortment, along with a rack for storing items; the whole room had a tightly-packed together feeling, and Alessa found it difficult to move among the clustered shelves. The room had been converted back into an ordinary storage room. Alessa thankfully breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God,” she said, even though she knew there was no such thing as the Christian God, as they understood it, and the other one was a monster. It was the principal of the thing. This couldn’t have worked out better for her. At least now she didn’t have to worry about being assaulted again, in whatever nightmarish way they chose.

Alessa moved further into the room. She didn’t notice anything out of place at first. There was nothing on the shelves, and the locker seemed quite normal. It was then that she saw it. There was an ornately decorated chest on the right wall of the place, with vibrant colors and a beautifully carved gray pattern on its surface. It had been hidden by a divide and was not immediately visible. Alessa approached the chest curiously. The chest had a panel on its surface, with buttons to press lined up in rows of threes, and the panel seemed inlaid with an almost gold color. The buttons were labeled ‘1’, ‘2’, and ‘3’, on either rows of the panel, and was done so in a way that was impossible to miss. It was obvious this was the “reward” the radio host had talked about. The chest lay on a table, having been placed there by someone only a few minutes ago.

Alessa frowned in concentration. Time to get to work. The first question had been about the name of a road leading to the resort area of the town. She remembered them well, having written it into her brain back when they first aired. Alessa concentrated hard on answering the question, as she remembered what she knew of the town’s history. Okay, the name of a street, she told herself…Bachman Road. That was easy, there was only one major road leading to the amusement park for that side of the town. She knew that like the back of her hand. She pressed the ‘1’ button on the first row for the corresponding answer.

 _Doing good so far, Alessa_ , she told herself.

The second question was about the mine that had brought the town its fortunes, before it went bankrupt and the town turned to another industry for its revenue, tourism…Alessa knew this well from school. It was Wiltse Coal Mine. The mine lay on the outskirts of South Vale, and served the town for several decades. It was discovered in the early 1800’s, and was mined by the town until the early 1900’s. Alessa pressed the third button for ‘3’. She was almost finished.

The third question was about a politician who had run for local office. Alessa frowned to herself. She didn’t know this question. Alessa groaned to herself. She had no idea what the answer to this question was. She hadn’t been in the town in years. She vaguely remembered reading something in the paper about it, but she couldn’t for the life of her remember the details about who the person was that was involved. Gah, this was impossible! Alessa decided to mentally review what she knew about the candidates, taking it one step at a time.

Scott Fairbanks was out. She had absolutely no idea who that was. He may have been a local member of the Order, but there was probably nothing significant about him. Alessa was sure she would have heard about him if it were otherwise. That left two possible candidates, Jimmy Stone and Toby Archbolt. Alessa mentally reviewed what she knew about each of them.

Jimmy Stone was a priest in the Order. He was always wearing those Executioner costumes, which Alessa found utterly weird, and he was nicknamed “the Red Devil” by his followers. Alessa didn’t recall hearing anything about him running for office, but then again, she couldn’t remember the details of the person she had read about in the papers.

Toby Archbolt was an unknown. He was a member of the Order, but that was all she knew. Alessa didn’t remember reading about him running for office, but then again, that was the problem. She couldn’t remember the details of who it was who ran for office in the paper she read. Only the vague memory of reading the paper in the morning, and seeing the article about Silent Hill, was the thing that sprang to her mind. She tried to recall anything that she could about Toby Archbolt’s personality, anything that might help her, but she couldn’t remember anything about what he was like. Oh God, she didn’t know.

She had to make a choice. She knew nothing of the circumstances being discussed in the question, and yet she knew she had to answer soon, or else she would stay here forever. Oh God, she was going to fail this test, and then who knows what kind of consequences would be unleashed. Alessa felt her heart starting to beat faster, and her anxieties going up all over the place. She wasn’t cut out for this. Alessa strained her brains to come up with an answer, but none was forthcoming. _Don’t make me choose…_

Alessa put her left hand over her eyes, and moved her hand rapidly over the buttons, counting down in her mind. She waited until several moments had passed, not wanting to make the decision, fingers hovering over the panel with a frantic energy. Finally, she pushed down the button for option number 1, with one slender finger.

A grating buzzing sound was suddenly heard throughout the room. Alessa was taken aback by the shocking intrusion, as she realized exactly what that meant. _Oh no._ She had failed the test. It wasn’t Jimmy Stone, it was Toby Archbolt! Damn it! Who knew what was going to be out there now? She had chosen the wrong answer, and she doubted the town was going to let her forget about it. She had no idea about the consequences that would ensue, but they probably wouldn’t be pretty.

It was a disheartening, depressing moment. And suddenly Alessa lost it. She was going to get that reward no matter what! She tried to wrench open the lock, manually giving it a beating and pulling at it with all her might. When that didn’t work, Alessa took a step back. She decided she was going to try to break the lock. She thought about shooting it, but she wasn’t sure what the effect would be in a place like this. Her resolve only grew greater, and this was pissing her off. She tried to pry open the chest with her katana, using it as a crowbar, but the damn container would not budge, and she wasn’t sure if the added force would break her katana. It wasn’t supposed to happen, considering it was a katana, but she didn’t want to be unsure and break her katana, and end up with a broken, useless blade. Alessa sighed with considerable discontent. The only way might be to take the chest and smash it against the floor, to spill open the contents. It looked pretty heavy though, and she didn’t want to strain her back, or her abdomen. Alessa sighed to herself in growing frustration. Damn it. She couldn’t get in. No matter what she tried, she couldn’t get in. The stupid radio host had made sure that the case was foolproof, to anything but a sledgehammer. She almost felt like crying. She had failed this challenge. She sagged her shoulders, as she realized the inevitable truth. She couldn’t do it. There was no way to open the case. Damn it. So much for that reward.

Alessa peeked her head out the door. She then went back inside. Who knows what was lurking outside now, thanks to her earlier decision. She didn’t dare to go outside now. But she had to, so she picked herself up by her bootstraps and left the room. She had no choice. She couldn’t stay in this place still lingering here after everything was done, and being afraid of what she was facing like a little girl. She was braver than that. She had to go out there.

The hallway was deserted. Alessa looked from side to side, trying to ascertain the threat. She almost thought there was nothing there to fear for a moment. It was all a big bluff. Suddenly, the cacophony of noise emerged out of the darkness, heading towards her. She saw a massive brown creature heading towards her. Alessa turned on spotting the creature, and she nearly jumped back in shock upon seeing how quickly it was aggressively proceeding towards her. The eight eyes that stared out of the square-like head on its shoulders were ghastly, and the creature had a mottled brown skin that covered the entirety of its body, rusted, bloody, and looking like it had been burned. There were multiple limbs, and each one was topped off with a hand of some sort, useful for grabbing stuff and ripping it to pieces obviously, though they barely resembled a human. The bottom half looked like an ordinary man wearing pants, and the legs were moving quickly while barefooted on the ground as they approached her. The creature gave a low growl and savagely rushed at her, and Alessa knew she had to act. Alessa aimed her gun and shot at the deranged creature approaching her. The first shot didn’t stop the monster in its tracks, but the second to the stomach made it pause in pain, and the third one finally took it down. Alessa breathed hard at the shock, putting her hands on her knees and resting on them. Oh God, that was tough. She had nearly pissed her pants when that thing came out of the darkness! That was too much of a shock. Where the hell had that thing come from? One moment it wasn’t there, the next it was. It was like it had been there in the shadows, waiting to rush out at her.

Alessa took a closer look at the dead monster. Oh God, why did it have to be spiders? She hated spiders! They were one of the few childhood fears that Alessa had retained, and now was no different. They had always creeped her out, with the way they moved, their many eyes, and the way they stalked you while skittering along on the surface of the floor. She didn’t even like Spider-Man that much, knowing that he would eventually mutate into a hideous half-man, half-spider with multiple limbs, who wanted to eat human flesh. She had once spent $12 on insect spray to catch a spider that had gotten away from her. Her family thought she had gone crazy. This hybrid looked far less grotesque than the comic book version, but it was still hideous. She had had a wall collection on insects once when she was a child, but she was still disturbed by them. That was when she was still patient enough to deal with insects, and Dahlia had encouraged her to collect them, but even then she recognized the disturbing aspect of them.

There was a crumpled paper in the ‘hand’ of the monster. Looking at it curiously, Alessa picked it up and read over the crude lines of writing. There were scraggly lines of writing that barely spelled out the words “Not a treat, but a trick!” Alessa frowned to herself as she examined the statement. Yeah, that was definitely the ‘reward’ for failing the quiz challenge. There was a crude drawing of some kind of vial brown in color and looking like a glass bottle of some kind. Alessa looked closer at it and realized it looked like an ampoule, a drug that was supposed to promote accelerated healing. So that was what the prize was for answering the questions correctly, she realized. Alessa sighed highly with discontent; that was something that really would have come in handy for her throughout these circumstances.

Alessa went back down to the first floor. There was only one place left, and it was a big one. She went in through the north entrance of the day room. This place was big, and it was the only way into the patient hall of the first floor. Alessa went inside without a thought. The torrent of sounds coming from the darkness immediately alerted her. Alessa nearly jumped back, until she realized that she was separated from the nurse by a barrier of wire fence. Alessa took a moment to calm her beating heart, taking deep breaths of the stale otherworldly air. The nurse ambled about in the darkness, hunched over like a hunchback with a weapon in her hand, barely aware of her presence apparently, as long as she didn’t make too much noise. Suddenly she noticed there was a paper lying on the ground. There was a diary on the ground! Alessa looked at the paper, which was a crumbled up form barely maintaining its shape among the other pages of the notebook it was a part of. Alessa kept a wary eye on the nurse in the background, while she picked up the notebook and began reading through its contents, holding the aged notebook carefully in her hands.

_The world is teeming with  
unnecessary people._

_It's God's decision that I fight._  
As a knight of honor, as protector  
of the seal, I sacrifice myself to the  
blood of criminals. 

Alessa frowned in growing disgust while regarding the contents she’d just read. So this was the diary of a religious fanatic. And there were only a few guesses as to who it might have been. The primary one was right here in the hospital. Leonard wasn’t just an abusive psychopath, he truly believed he was one of the necessary ones. Typical religious fanatic, Alessa scoffed. They were usually the unnecessary ones! They were the ones who discriminated against people, tried to force them to adopt their view, judged people based on their sexuality, instead of encouraging them to give in to their natural urges, and generally did all sorts of abhorrent things. And yet they were the ones who thought they were the necessary ones, while everyone else was a blight on their kingdoms. It made Alessa sick. She felt like throwing something at the wall. If it were up to her, she would wipe them all off the face of the Earth. She clenched her fist in growing rage. Leonard had to die. She had to kill him, no matter the consequences. Leonard must die, because he was the embodiment of all that had gone wrong with the world today. She was going to kill him, so that she could avenge all the innocent people who had suffered at his hands, and the hands of those like him. She would absolutely demolish him.

She left the room for the hell outside. She went around to the rear entrance of the day room. From the moment she entered the room, the nurse spotted her and charged at her. Alessa waited until the nurse had come out of the darkness closer to her and then she calmly shot her twice, killing her instantly. She proceeded past the dead body with an icy calm. She was on a mission today, and she was not going to let anything stop her.

As soon as she entered the hallway, Alessa was alarmed at the noise that was heading towards her. She started firing off into the darkness repeatedly, squeezing off shot after shot at the oncoming creatures. It was like a cluster of crumbling paper, scampering on the ground, low growls, and determined feet on wire mesh, amplified to the max that felt like a nightmare in the environment surrounding her; like a wall of noise hitting her full force, all around her! _Come on, come on._ Soon enough, she saw them. The responsible creatures were coming towards her, scampering on the ground quickly intent on making her their meal. Alessa was able to stop a couple of them with her shots, but one of them kept coming, sidestepping the corpses and fighting its way through the barrage with determination. Alessa nearly shrieked as the creature almost jumped at her, only to be stopped by the shot from Alessa’s Magnum at the last minute. It was only a little startled sound, but it was enough to give voice to her fears. She was pressed back against the door, as the creature collapsed right in front of her. It wasn’t done, though. There was still one more of them. Alessa aimed her gun at the shadows. She could hear it scurrying about somewhere up ahead. She waited patiently for the creature to reveal itself. Finally the creature came advancing forward. It was moving very quickly and was able to evade all of the shots Alessa fired its way, making her panic a bit as she shakily backed up. She was only able to hit it when the creature came up close, shooting it in its covered face. The creature was still rattling with a death throe at her feet. Alessa stomped on it and ended its life. Then came the nurse. Alessa was alarmed when she saw the nurse had a gun, and frantically fought to bring up her gun to aim properly. She fired two shots at her chest, instantly taking her down, before the nurse had a chance to raise her gun again. Alessa breathed a sigh of relief. This was getting difficult. They were throwing more loads of monsters at her, though thankfully it seemed at an end. She wiped her brow, thankful this little incident had passed without her body getting torn to shreds.

Alessa noticed there was a message written on the wall. “Happy Birthday!” Happy Birthday, what the hell? Don’t tell her it was that birthday psycho again, back from the phone call in the locker room, laying a trap for her of some sort! Was he laying a trap for her of some sort, she wondered, looking at the white scrawled message? Or was there something else going on here, concerning all this?

Alessa carefully opened the door to peek inside.

As soon as she opened the door, Alessa shrieked and jumped back as three nurses suddenly rushed at her! She was forced to put up her gun and shoot rapidly, to avoid the nurses’ swinging pipes smashing into her face with their nasty surfaces, and a potentially damaging gunshot blowing a hole in her chest. She took down two of the nurses, slamming them to the ground with a series of thunderous shots. A third nurse came forward, and Alessa used her blade to divert the pipe and planting a shot in the nurse’s chest, taking her down. Alessa dragged her forearm over her forehead. She had to stop doing that! She was going to get killed or molested by these things. And the scary part was she wasn’t joking. This town was evil, corrupted, perverted, and gross. She didn’t even want to imagine what they would do to her, if they got their hands on her without their weapons, free to touch her. She knew she was using gallows humor to deal with her situation, but at this point it was the only way she could sustain herself throughout this hell. It was a scary thought, just contemplating the thought. She put it out of her mind. Alessa knelt by the corpses, examining the details of the room. There had to be a purpose to what she was doing here, in this patient room overrun with carnivorous nurses. This couldn’t just be a useless room with no purpose whatsoever. Unless she had stumbled into a random mess filled with monsters, like on many occasions before. Damn it, that happened a lot more frequently than she thought.

There was a stretcher in the room, a bed that was dirty and filthy with its decayed mattress, bottles of pills on a nightstand, and another overturned bed in the corner of the room. Alessa went to the stretcher first. It was right next to the door, and was the first thing she noticed. She knew there was someone under there. It looked too thin to be a person, though. Was it a string of long intestine? An unknown animal she hadn’t yet encountered? The images the possibilities conjured up were endless. A part of her wanted to check, but then she knew better than to lift the sheet. It was probably better to leave it alone. She left it alone to move on.

Alessa knelt by the bed, on the left side of its rusted frame. There was a greeting card on the edge. It looked like a birthday card! Was it from that creep? She wondered. Alessa picked up the birthday card and opened it. There was a sequence written on the card. “7 + 13 + 27 = 47?” What was the meaning of that? Alessa wondered about the significance behind those statements. What was the town trying to tell her? She got the feeling there was something important she wasn’t seeing.

Alessa noticed there was something on the other bed. There were two first aid kits on the frame! She didn’t know how she had missed them before. These would definitely come in handy in patching her wounds. While the health drinks were okay, she didn’t know if she wanted to keep drinking that stuff, until she had gone through a dozen bottles of it. Using it to wash her hands was one thing, but she didn’t know if she wanted to keep putting them inside her body. She guessed that was the birthday present from that crazy guy on the phone. That was a pretty great birthday present, Alessa had to smile. Still, that didn’t change the fact that there was something unsettling about this whole issue with the calls. Who was that guy? How did he know so much about her, including her name? And why was he so obsessed with the birthday thing? The caller might have given her a nice reward, but there was something undeniably creepy underlying the whole tone of the caller. She supposed it was a mystery she might never know the answer to.

The dark hallway was completely deserted now. Alessa walked down the length of the corridor with a sense of foreboding. She was getting closer now. Every step she was taking was bringing her closer to Leonard and her conclusion. The moment of the hour was rapidly arriving. It was now time to see the truth about whether she could do this; confront her hated enemy. She passed a stretcher on the way. There was a dead person under the sheet. She was pretty sure they were dead, so they had no need for Alessa to check them under it. The sheet was red with whatever the sickness was that was corrupting this place. She sure wasn’t going to touch it, that was for sure. Whatever it was, it would probably give her a disease or kill her, if she touched it directly. Medical related stuff was one of Alessa’s greatest phobias.

The other doors in the hallway were locked. There was one that led to the pool and the garden, and an elevator that led upstairs. Neither of them were relevant. There was only one place left to go.

Alessa stood alone outside the room. Her heart was starting to beat faster. This was it. The moment when she would finally determine whether or not she could put this man down, once and for all. The room was C4, and it was the very last room on the patient hall of the first floor. She took a deep breath. The whole enormity of the moment was upon her, and it was intimidating. Her hand was almost shaking. Grabbing the doorknob, she slowly turned the knob and went inside. The door opened easily to her advance; there was nothing holding her back now.

The room was darkly lit and small. There was a stretcher up ahead, and some kind of curtain in the corner. Her first impression was one of confusion. Where was Leonard? There was no reason to overreact at first, though. Still, she knew things in this place were rarely as they seemed. This was the only place she could have gone. He had to be around here somewhere. There was something more to this room than met the eye, and she was determined to find out what. Alessa searched throughout the room, determined to uncover the mystery of what she was supposed to do here.

There was a stretcher right in front of her, which she had already noted. Looking closer, she saw that it was no ordinary stretcher, though. It almost looked like an altar. There was a picture hanging above the altar, although it was indistinguishable as to what it was. Alessa wondered whether the Otherworld had warped it, or whether it had always been indistinguishable in that way. There were two lit candles, a knife on the blanket…and was that blood that was positioned on the altar? Alessa found it to be very creepy…and it was disturbing as to what this was.

Alessa looked to the left. There was an old book on a table, with the pages yellowing. It looked really old, like it was written at least a century ago. Alessa looked at the title, and realized it was a copy of the “Lost Memories” book she had found earlier. Or was it the same book, and it had been transported over here somehow? It was open to a section somewhere in the middle. Alessa read through it, intrigued on what it had to say this time. It was obviously placed here for a reason.

_One characteristic, mentioned only_  
in rare documents and dying out in  
the modern age, is that of the ritual  
sacrifice. 

_"Offering prayers, pierce a man's_  
chest with a copper stake. Drench  
the altar in the blood which spouts  
red from the heart, to praise and to  
show loyalty unto God." 

_In another sacrificial rite mentioned_  
in the same book, the victim is  
burned alive. 

_This was a more dignified ceremony_  
in which prisoners and sinners were  
not allowed to participate. Only the  
clergy could be sacrificed. 

_Similar to burning at the stake, no_  
comparable rite can be found in  
religions practiced nearby. It may  
have some connection with the  
main deity being a sun god. 

_Even though this religion extols_  
redemption, it brings to mind a  
dark and cultish history. 

Alessa shivered a bit in recollection. That had been done to her. She was a priestess in the Order. Or at least, she was supposed to have been. She was also supposed to have been a medium. Unfortunately she didn’t have the talent for it. However, she had had enough raw power that Dahlia had chosen her to be the harbinger for the Order’s God. It couldn’t be just any plain old little girl, only a clergy member of the Order could have the ‘honor’ of giving birth to the Order’s God. It was indeed like being burned at the stake, except it wasn’t meant to torture, like being a horrible death at the hands of stupid Christians too deluded to realize that most witches were good. Instead it was meant to be a purification ritual, a rite of passage through pain. It made Alessa shudder to know that someone could do that to their child, and not feel remorse for it.

Alessa suddenly knew what she had to do…

She took out the packet of blood. Alessa grimaced at what she was about to do, knowing it was too much like a sacrifice and hating every minute of it. She took the packet of blood and spilled it all over the altar, laying it out in a flowing pattern. There, that was her sacrifice. There was her sacrifice in blood, to the Order’s heathen God, its so-called Sun God and Creator deity, and that was all she would do. No way was she going to sacrifice an innocent person to this thing. Now to wait for the results.

At first nothing happened. Then reality began to shift around her, as though the air was changing in the environment, imposing its will on the concrete structure. The back of the room began to melt into the floor, as the structure was opening up and changing with an almost liquid-like, organic motivation. The altar had accepted its offering. The whole process was fascinating to watch, and Alessa couldn’t help but stare as the pipes twisted and buckled, and the floor crumbled into a red mass that receded with the tiles. Soon the process was complete.

Before her was a vast pit, stretching across the expanse of the room. The edges of the opening appeared to have been formed from the same organic tubing where that monster on the ladder had been in. Alessa noticed the entryway of the room had been blocked by the hole, now separated by a few feet. There was no way out now. Alessa took a deep breath. This was it. There were no other places where Leonard could be, and she had reached the end of her journey in this particular locale. She had to go into the void, to find her hated enemy.

Alessa looked at the feature she had seen earlier. It turned out it wasn’t a curtain at all, but a partition of some kind, probably to protect someone’s privacy while dressing. That same symbol she had seen all this time was on there, too. This one was different, though. This one seemed to have been written down a long time ago, rather than been made recently. It didn’t seem to be part of an ethereal glow, like the other symbols, but rather like an actual piece of writing. Alessa wondered if Leonard had written it, or if he was worshipping it in some way. What was he doing with it? Was there some magical component to it, or was it part of some spell he had been casting? She knew there was some important component to the symbol, but Alessa just couldn’t remember for the life of her what that was…she knew it would probably make itself known to her eventually.

There was a ladder at the edge of the crevice, leading down into the hole. Alessa steeled her nerves. This was it. She was getting ready to end this. Down there was the specter of the man who had been haunting her all her life. She was ready for this to be finished once and for all. Grabbing the edges of the ladder, she carefully climbed her way down into the darkness, step by step, ensuring that she didn’t fall on the slippery rungs of the thing. She wondered what hell was awaiting her down there, in the care of this nightmarish hell.

 

~

 

Alessa descended into the darkness. The place around her seemed to be a cave, or sewer of some kind, and wasn’t what she was expecting. It was dark, smelling of stale uncirculated air, and she could almost feel the moisture in the air. The fetid stench clung to her clothing at every turn. Although all things considered, it could have been a lot worse. She took her feet off the last rung and climbed off of the ladder, stepping onto the wet sewer ground.

Alessa took a surveying glance at her latest surroundings. The chamber appeared to be an altered underground waterway. The sewer floor was covered in about three and half feet of water that flowed in streams from the grinding machinery nearby. She looked to see if her prey was indeed here, but she couldn’t notice anyone besides herself. 

“Ah Heather, you’re finally here. It certainly took you long enough,” a familiar voice said from somewhere in the room. 

“Leonard? Is that you?” Alessa inquired blandly.

“Yes. Thank you, Heather. Now I can finally leave this place, and Claudia’s ridiculous dream is over. Well, I guess it’s time to dispose of her. ‘The salvation of all mankind’. Ha! What a pathetic goal to aspire to. Why must we reward even the unbelievers? It’s a pity. She could have been such a nice girl,” Leonard said mock-sadly, as if lamenting for his lost daughter. The tone rankled Alessa, but she forced herself to remain calm. 

“What are you talking about?” she asked in response, trying to sound ignorant about the situation. 

“About our plans, of course,” the unseen voice said in matter-of-fact fashion. “It’s true that God is merciful. But first one must be chosen. Only those who hearken to the voice of God will be given the keys to paradise. Don’t you think so, Heather?” The delusional preaching was nothing less than Alessa expected from Leonard Wolf. In a way, it was reassuring to see that his stay at Brookhaven had not changed him a bit. It made what she would soon do all that more enjoyable. 

“Yeah, whatever,” she said dismissively. “Go ahead and think anything you want.”

“What do you mean by that?” the hidden man inquired in a quietly serious tone. 

“It’s funny you should mention all that stuff about unbelievers. You see, I couldn’t care less about your sorry excuse for a God,” she said nonchalantly.

“What? You’re an unbeliever? How dare you deceive me?!” 

Alessa was satisfied her words had the intended effect. She continued as if she hadn’t heard him at all. “I have something to tell you. My name isn’t Heather, you sick, stupid son of a bitch. It’s Alessa. Alessa Gillespie,” she said casually, almost off-handedly.

There was a beat of silence.

“Alessa?” Leonard breathed in a shocked voice. 

“Yes. Little Alessa, whom you raped when she was six years old. I haven’t forgotten what you did to me, you monster. And after the hell this goddamn hospital has put me through, I’m going to enjoy making you suffer for it.” Now that she had revealed her true identity to Leonard, there was little point in keeping a tranquil facade. 

“Alessa…it can’t be.”

“Oh, but it is,” she assured him ominously. She could sense panic start to rise in the old man. “And I fully remember what you did to me. Can you have even the slightest idea of what you put me through? How dirty and worthless you made me feel? I was a child; too young to understand the sick things you were doing to me, you miserable bastard!” 

She took a deep breath. “But I knew it was wrong through every second of that hell. Every time you jabbed your fingers into me or forced yourself between my thighs. Every time you made me ‘pleasure’,” the disgust dripped from her tone, “those filthy organs between your legs, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt I wasn’t supposed to be doing that. You weren’t supposed to be doing that! But I never realized just how sick it truly was then. I do now.” 

Leonard was silent, stunned by the venomous level of his victim’s sheer outrage and hatred. He was afraid as well, the fear pouring off him now in palpable waves. It brought a sadistic smile to Alessa’s face. But then she recalled something else, prompting the smile to fade. 

“And to think you had the audacity to do that to Claudia too. Your own daughter! How dare you call yourself a human being?” 

“You know,” she began, “one of the first things I did when I woke up all those years ago was to look for you. I knew you deserved the most horrible punishment I could inflict on you with my powers, and you weren’t going to escape me so easily. I must say I was very disappointed when I realized you left town.” 

She scoffed. “You got off lucky then. But your luck’s run out. You’re every bit the demon Dahlia was. And just like she burned for what she did, so will you. And so will your fucking excuse for a deity!”

Invoking his revered deity finally got a rise out of Leonard. “Heretic! You plan to destroy God!” he shouted from somewhere in the water. 

“You’re damned right I do!” Alessa screamed at her nemesis. “It’s enough that I had to deal with that once. I’m not going to deal with it a second time,” she told him resolutely.

Leonard almost seemed disappointed. “I see now the old bitch did a pathetic job of teaching you. I knew I should have taken your destiny into my own hands. You infidel…” 

“Oh shut up, you arrogant motherfucker!” Alessa snapped furiously. “Enough of that bullshit already! That garbage almost ruined my life, and it obviously drove Claudia insane. I’ve had more than enough of it. You want to believe all that crap? Fine by me, since it won’t help you in the least. I’m gonna kill her, and right now, I’m gonna kill you.” She readied her Desert Eagle for emphasis.

“If you’re going to threaten me, at least own up to what you did and face me like a man,” Alessa ordered. She smirked when Leonard hesitated. “Although, I guess you’re not really a man, eh? You never were. You’re nothing but a gutless, ball-less, depraved son of a bitch.” 

That was the last straw for Leonard. “You insolent bitch!” he roared from somewhere in the room. “It’s obvious you didn’t learn your lesson from all those times I handled you and that pathetic daughter of mine. Very well then. I won’t just grant you a gruesome death now. I’ll show pain unlike anything you’ve felt before!”

He rose out of the water, and Alessa beheld her nemesis for the first time in over fourteen years. The Leonard she remembered was a man of average height and weight. The Leonard she saw now was anything but. 

Warped and twisted by the Otherworld, the beast was as grotesque on the outside as he was on the inside. The ugly brown flesh on his bare body was covered in sores, scars, tumors, and other repulsive things no one wanted to see on a human form. His mass had doubled in size, with his arms extending well past his thighs. Odd crescent-shaped spikes resembling malformed fins adorned their ends. Leonard’s face bore no mouth, and his blackened eyes were completely sunken in. 

Alessa was not impressed. She stared at Leonard with the disdain that one might have for an ant, pressed under their boot. “Well, well, you really are a monster. Why am I not surprised?” Under normal circumstances, Alessa might have been startled by his altered appearance. Such was her rage that she didn’t even raise an eyebrow. 

“It is an honor to be chosen by God for one of Her glorious tasks. And now, you will suffer for defying her!” Leonard growled at her.

“Then go ahead, you depraved sack of shit. Do your worst!” she snarled back hatefully. 

Leonard wasted no time in lunging at the girl, swiping viciously at her chest. Alessa evaded the attack, raising her Magnum to the demon’s head. She fired a thunderous shot right at his forehead. Leonard groaned in pain. Alessa got off two more shots that dropped Leonard to the water, then connected with another before he swam away. 

Alessa took the moment to reload. She worked fast but Leonard recovered by the time she finished. Seizing the opportunity to strike, he slid towards her through the water and swiped at her legs. Alessa tumbled down into the aquatic flow, losing her grip on the Magnum. Her adversary slowly stood up, towering above her like an executioner about to carry out his sentence. He raises his spiked arm and slammed it into the water, but Alessa dodged the blow by rolling to the side. Alessa tried to take out her sword and slash at her adversary, but Leonard struck her with a hard blow, swiping it out of her hand and sending it to the water. Damn it, she had to get that sword back! She tried to dive lower to the water to go for her sword, but Leonard struck her with hard force in the abdomen, sending her back to the water, to her knees. Alessa held her stomach, wincing in pain. She had to take another shot at him, before he gained the advantage. It was then that she noticed a spot on his body that provided a most suitable target. Before the demon attempted another hit, Alessa took out her switchblade and thrust it right into the fleshy bulge between his legs.

Leonard unleashed a howl of pure agony at the attack. Alessa ruthlessly jabbed and twisted the blade, ripping apart whatever organs the pouch of skin had been concealing. She pulled out the knife, her right hand covered in blood. The organs spilled to the water in a waterfall of blood, as Leonard howled in frightened agonizing pain. Leonard reeled from the wound, and Alessa used jam her knife right into the creature’s right eye. Another shriek of anguish emerged from the monster as she shattered his optical organ. He struck out with his right fin, but it wasn’t enough to prevent another attack from Alessa. She bounced back and shoved the knife into his left eye, leaving him completely blinded. Leonard again struck at her, this time throwing her several feet backwards.

The impact took Alessa’s breath away, but it made little difference at this point. Leonard was defenseless now. Searching through the water, she located her gun. Aiming at her enemy’s head, she fired shot after shot at the monster. He collapsed to the ground after the fifth one.

Alessa approached the thrashing body. Leonard’s face was partially blown off, revealing rotten muscle and bone. He was still alive, but just barely. One more shot would probably finish him off. Alessa retrieved her sword from the water, strapping it to her back once again despite the blade dripping with watery moisture. She stared at her hated nemesis, who was now thrashing helplessly on the ground. She aimed the gun directly at his skull. 

So much suffering had been caused at the hands of this man. What he did to Alessa was only part of it. Claudia was his victim too. Dahlia may have warped her into an insane fanatic, but it was Leonard who set her on the path by abusing her in such a despicable manner. In a way, it was his fault Julie was dead, and Cybil was dead as well, murdered by Claudia herself. Leonard’s sins were unforgivable. Had he lost his humanity to the Order or did he ever have any to begin with? Alessa didn’t know and frankly, she couldn’t care less. She had lived with the burden of the shame and humiliation for far too long. The time had come for Leonard Wolf to face justice for his heinous actions. 

“See you in Hell, Leonard. I hope you get everything you deserve down there,” Alessa muttered. She closed her eyes and pulled the trigger. 

A loud bang signified the Magnum discharging the powerful bullet that struck Leonard squarely in the forehead, shattering bone and flesh. Leonard’s spasms halted immediately. The water around him lay still. Alessa took in the sight of the unmoving corpse, filled with a sense of triumphant vindication. Leonard was dead. It had taken many years, but he finally paid the ultimate price for the hell he put two innocent little girls through. 

Almost on cue, the cave around her filled with a white light that made Alessa’s eyes wince from the shock, and filled the entire chamber of the underground passage. Alessa brought up her hands to block out the light, but this time there was no torturing straining in her mind that caused her to grit her teeth in pain. She was at peace. She had killed her hated enemy, and there was no more threat of the past at his hands coming back to haunt her. She felt the world spinning gradually around her, as that effect took place that gave Alessa a familiar disorienting sensation. Alessa yielded to the sensation, allowing her body to shut down, as she heeded the town’s primal call. Alessa passed out pleasantly almost, in a bliss of white light, wondering where she would wake up next.


	23. Blissful Respite

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Silent Hill belongs to Konami. Even though the series has been killed by Konami, and Konami itself is going the way of the dinosaur when it comes to consoles, it will always live on in our hearts. ;-)
> 
>  
> 
>  **AN:** After a long time, I have finally decided to update this fic! I am NOT satisfied with this chapter. However, it has been long enough, so I have decided to post it anyway. It will probably be revised several times, during the next iteration of this fic. This fic has writing that is several years old, and it received a bad response on fanfiction.net. However, I left it in because it's some of the more emotional stuff I've written for Alessa. It's a shame if I only write horror for Alessa, and don't give her any real emotions to play with. I hope it's not too jarring, when it switches to the newer stuff around the middle area.
> 
>  
> 
>  **Warning:** Graphic sex between two women, and between a man and a woman.

**Chapter 20: Blissful Respite**

 

**Jack's Inn**

 

The room gradually lightened around Alessa. Light streamed in through the barred windows, the beds and floor were becoming illuminated with the filtering clarity, and the air around her had taken on a lighter atmosphere. The woman sprawled out on the floor didn’t notice any of that, though. Had she been awake, she would have noticed that the walls of the hospital had reverted back to their dirty brick façade, and the floor was no longer constructed from wire mesh. The woman looked dead to the world, had anyone been around to see it, but she was very much alive. Sunlight shone all around her, almost illuminating her with a calming halo that would have been soothing to anyone else.

Alessa slowly pushed herself up from the ground. She felt like she had been out for a long time. Her entire body was tired. God, she felt drained. She tried to remember where she had been before. The last thing she remembered was being in a dark, wet cave underground in the hospital depths. Suddenly, it occurred to her that she was touching the dirty hospital floor with her face and hands, face-down on the ground. Oh God. Time to take out another health drink. God, what she wouldn’t give for a working, viable sink around here, to get this filth off her. She stood up, and looked around at the surroundings. The Otherworld had reverted back to the normal world. Huh. It looked like she was done here, with whatever she had been doing here. She tried hard to remember what she’d been doing here, placing a hand to her forehead in thought. Suddenly, it came to her.

Alessa smiled menacingly in growing triumphant victory. She had finally defeated Leonard Wolf. Her old nemesis, who had caused her so much pain and misery over the years, and tormented her in ways no one else would ever know, was dead. She had stomped the life out of him, as easily as one crushed an ant under their boot. She felt free; at peace with herself, in a way she hadn’t been in a very long time. Now all she had to do was deal with Claudia, and get rid of this god they were trying to summon, and she could get the hell out of this place. Revenge truly was the best justice, she thought. Those who thought otherwise were fools, or were just carrying it out in the wrong way.

Leonard’s body was gone. She searched around for it, but it was nowhere to be found. It was probably still stuck in the Otherworld. Good, let it stay and rot there, for all eternity until it was eaten by the very demons in that place. It was what he deserved.

She was about to leave, when her foot accidentally struck something that was sent sliding along on the ground. Alessa hurried to get to it, before it got too out of sight. She examined the object on the ground, before she knelt to pick it up. She picked up the object and noted that it was some sort of circular talisman about the size of her hand, made from solid bronze and engraved with an unusual triangular design. Right, she had forgotten Leonard’s claim of having a “Seal”, whatever that meant. This must be it. Alessa stared closer and recognized it instantly. The symbol was the same red crest inscribed in the passageway between the hospital’s regular and nightmare versions, the same one that had brought her a sense of peace and calm. Alessa gasped softly to herself: this was the Seal of Metatron. She remembered it well; she had used it to escape from the town’s plane of torment before. Once she had sought to destroy herself, and the Seal was the incredibly potent method that would have accomplished that task. The Seal was an object of great power, and was to be commanded by the caster with great wariness as to its power. Alessa frowned to herself in thought. It was a powerful tool for her to utilize against the Order, if she could only remember how to use it?

What was Leonard doing with it? Did he really think he could wield such a powerful spell? Alessa scoffed to herself. Leonard was no magic caster. He was simply a deluded old man, nothing more. This had to be the object he was guarding. But on whose orders? Claudia couldn’t have offered it to him for safekeeping, since it was the one object that could derail her plans. It made no sense for Leonard to have the Seal, unless he wanted to keep it in the one place Claudia could never get to it.

There was nothing else to do in the room. She was done here. Alessa looked around the room. The cookie was still glued to the board, along with the bug, and the Christmas card, but there was nothing else of use on the board. She hadn’t realized that it was day again, when she first woke up. She had gotten the impression that it was night when she had been in the normal hospital searching for Leonard, and who knows how long she had been in the Otherworld. How long had she been here? And Douglas! She suddenly thought with a start. Had Douglas wondered where she was, if she had gotten lost and why so much time had passed? Or was he dealing with his own issues, and was too occupied to notice that she had been gone so long?

The hallway outside the room was deserted. Stanley Coleman’s detached heartbeat still lingered in the air, but there were no traces of any monsters around. Alessa wondered how it was even possible that she was still hearing it, if the hospital was reflecting his breathing when he was alive, but Alessa knew he was dead. There was no coming back from that. She still needed to get out of here. It wouldn’t do to take too much time to do so. She decided to just ignore the breathing, the heartbeat.

She ran through the hallways at a leisurely pace, being unnerved at the deserted corridors. It was weird, but now that she had seen the hospital monster-infested, it actually looked kind of unnatural. There needed to be some life around here. It wasn’t natural for buildings to be this vacant. Maybe she was growing too used to seeing these places crawling with monsters, to think of them otherwise. Or maybe she was losing her mind, becoming weird with each hour she spent here. She hoped not. She still had lots to do; too much to accomplish, to go crazy now.

It was dark, too. For some reason she expected this place to light up once she defeated its Otherworld self, or return to a normal state. Nope, it was still dusty and dirty. This place truly was abandoned. She wondered why Leonard had been kept here, and how he had even slipped into the Otherworld without anyone noticing. Or maybe the hospital was on its last legs, and the staff was barely noticing what was happening around them. She wondered if she had been finding signs of the present, or traces of the past, as she gathered those memos and read the stories of this sordid, decrepit place.

While she was running, Alessa noticed that she hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Lisa. There was no trace of the nurse whatsoever. It was like she had completely vanished into the ether, back to wherever she came from.

Alessa had reached the main exitway. The map was still missing and hadn’t been replaced. No surprise there, since she still had it. Further proof that there was no one else here. The doors were unlocked now, just as she had left them. She knew they had locked there for a while. Motivation no doubt intended to keep her on her trail while she searched for Leonard. The town knew how to manipulate its objects of interest. She recalled that there had been dogs outside, and monstrous versions of those things with needles that sounded like a dentist drill. She shuddered, knowing she would have to go out there anyway. She readied her gun, ready to aim in case something came at her through the door. It was stressful like hell, knowing there was something out there that could try to eat her as soon as she opened the door. Another reason why she could have used a helping hand around here, in one form or another, wielding another gun. She was getting tired of doing everything herself, and getting handed a raw deal of bad luck at every turn.

Alessa stopped to think. She had hoped it was real, the genuine article this time. Alessa frowned. A part of her had hoped the nurse would come back to apologize to her. She should have known better.

 _I guess it was just another one of their sick little tests_ , she told herself, trying to make herself believe there really was nothing more to it than that. 

She didn’t want to believe the alternative.

She opened the door, and aimed her gun outward in case she needed to fire. Okay, time to get ready, she told herself. She counted down to the deciding moment: three, two, and one! She threw open the door and stepped out onto the hospital entryway. She extended her gun the full way, aiming out into the fog covered streets in case of any approaching attacks. She found…nothing. There was nothing out there in the fog. Alessa searched all around for any signs of malevolent life, but there was absolutely nothing on the streets of the town. Huh. She guessed all that worrying was for nothing. She relaxed her gun, and let down her guard.

Alessa sighed heavily to herself. She felt tired. Alessa sat down on the first steps of the hospital. She stayed there for a long time, waiting, and waiting, until she found the sufficient motivation to move again.

She could do with a break for a while.

 

~

 

Lisa drifted throughout the hospital after her confrontation with Alessa. She stalked the corridors angrily. The joy of seeing Alessa alive had quickly turned to outrage after she realized the girl was no different from the others, that she wouldn’t lift a finger to help her. 

She was furious. It wasn’t like she was asking for an instant solution to her problem. She wasn’t blind, damn it. She knew full well it would take nothing short of a miracle to get her out of this waking hell her life had turned into. All she wanted was for someone to at least try to help her for a change, instead of dismissing her as some monster just because she wasn’t alive in the same way they were.

All she wanted was some sympathy and compassion. Was that too much to ask? Worse, if there was one person in the world who ought to understand that, it was Alessa. 

Lisa ended up in the exam room of the first floor. She sat down at one of the cluttered tables. To do what, she wasn’t sure. She didn’t exactly have anywhere else to be right now.

She had wandered for a while throughout the hospital, walking aimlessly throughout the place, except for that couple of hours where she had passed out. Lisa didn’t know where she went during that time, and she was afraid to ask too closely. She got some images that flashed in her mind, pieces of things and locations, and some vague sense of something she didn’t understand, but that was all. She didn’t question it too highly. She always woke up in the hospital, unharmed and in one piece, and so she didn’t concern herself with it too much. She always felt a little bit different after, though. Perhaps it was just one of those things she wasn’t meant to understand. She had long since given up trying to understand how this place worked.

She found her thoughts drawn towards Alessa. Despite her anger, Lisa couldn’t bring herself to just completely ignore the girl’s presence in this place. She toyed with the idea of talking to Alessa again, before deciding she really had no choice. Insensitive or not, she had to know more about where her former patient had been. Perhaps it would explain a few things about what she was truly like now. 

Lisa scanned the surrounding areas of the hospital with her consciousness. She stretched her awareness out to the environment, zeroing in on Alessa’s unique aura, distinguishing her from all the other presences, human and otherwise, in the hospital. Finally, she got a sense of where the girl was, and connected to that image. Lisa drew in a sharp breath. She was in the Otherworld. Lisa connected automatically to the aura, not knowing what she’d step into when she saw the location.

Alessa was on the ground, curled into a fetal position on the grimy floor. She gritted her teeth, eyes screwed tightly shut; the expression was one not just of pain, but of utter agony. Looming over her stood a hideous replica of herself. The double wasn’t wearing any clothes, though one could hardly tell; her naked flesh was burnt almost beyond recognition. Only the vague outline of a female body and a somewhat less scarred face identified her as a copy of Alessa. Lisa watched in nauseated horror as repulsive reddish-brown fluid leaked from her charred breasts and between her legs, serving as a grotesque mimicry of normal bodily functions. 

Dark Alessa gave her counterpart a light shove with her foot, shifting Alessa onto her back. She placed a foot on her chest, holding her down, and unknowingly, allowing the unseen spectator a glimpse at Alessa’s injury. Lisa gasped when she saw the blood filtering through Alessa’s hands as she gripped the area between her legs, where her private parts should have been. Instead there was only bloody, mutilated flesh, and with her jeans pulled down the way they were, it was all too clear to Lisa what Alessa’s gruesome doppelganger had done to her. 

Dark Alessa gave a sinister grin as she straddled Alessa’s trembling body. She tore open Alessa’s shirt, exposing her bare chest to her double’s ferocious eyes. Dark Alessa’s hands roamed over the girl’s breasts, roughly kneading the tender flesh, leaving blood and flakes of charred skin over her torso. Alessa looked at the abomination with anguished eyes, tears trailing down her cheeks, as she pleaded quietly, desperately, for her to stop this torment. Dark Alessa’s sadistic dark red eyes told her she would get no such mercy. 

Alessa squirmed under her doppelganger’s ministrations. She was helpless, both from her terrible wound and from the double’s overpowering strength. She approached Alessa, grinning with malevolent intent. Lisa felt her heart beat quicker in her chest, as she saw the double grow closer to Alessa. The double had a pipe, and she raised it over her head in a vicious arc. Lisa withdrew contact from the vision before the pipe came slamming down. Oh God, no! She couldn’t watch any more of this.

Lisa came back to herself, shaken beyond belief. Oh God, she had to help Alessa! It didn’t matter what she had to do, she had to get Alessa out of there! She went to touch an entry point to the Otherworld, but she found herself pulling back, letting her hand drop. She was shaking all over, and tiny beads of sweat were forming on her forehead, rolling down her face from her sheer worry about Alessa. Still, despite how desperately she wanted to help Alessa, she just could not bring herself to enter the Otherworld again. That place was too scary, it was too traumatizing, and she just could not handle being there anymore.

Lisa was a coward, she knew it. But there was something else that was nagging at Lisa’s consciousness. She stretched out with her senses, trying to determine the odd quality to the situation, and suddenly she realized what it was. Despite all the horrific appearances to the contrary, this wasn’t real! The whole savage incident was a hallucination that was being caused by the Otherworld, by the town summoning its combined power to get into Alessa’s mind through a sheer carnage-filled delusion. Alessa wasn’t really being tortured by her double, and the double was wielding a pipe on the verge of killing her only on first glance. It was all in her head. Lisa breathed a sigh of relief.

Alessa hadn’t really been mutilated grotesquely, and on the verge of death. It was all a trick the town was playing on her. That did leave the issue of what Lisa would do when Alessa came back.

The issue of what she’d seen still left a mark on her. Lisa knotted her eyebrows as she pondered what all this was about. Why did they want her to suffer so much? That was the worst hallucination she had ever seen in this town, in any of the situations she had come across.

Lisa wanted to rescue Alessa right away and wrench her away from the Otherworld. But then she thought about what Alessa had said. Alessa already didn’t care about her, and she barely needed Lisa at all. Lisa certainly didn’t need her for anything. Why should Lisa be concerned about her fate?

Lisa lowered her arm, backing away from the opening she’d been about to make into the Otherworld. Alessa could take care of herself. She didn’t need Lisa’s help.

 _Screw her_ , she thought silently. She had no reason to be concerned about Alessa. It was petty, it was spiteful, and she was probably going to make herself feel awful about it later, but right now Lisa was hurt. She didn’t need the reminder of that staring her in the face right now; the fact that she could never live a normal life again.

An hour passed. Lisa shrugged it off. That girl didn’t need her for anything. She could obviously take care of herself. The girl was armed to the teeth, and clearly didn’t require Lisa’s services for anything.

Time began to pass by slowly as Lisa waited for Alessa. Lisa began to feel bad about her rash course of action earlier on. Maybe she had been too harsh in her assessment. The girl was only trying to survive, and she clearly couldn’t be bothered to do something that was probably impossible. She hadn’t been nasty at all to Lisa, or called her names, or told her to get out. She had even been downright sympathetic to Lisa; she had just told Lisa that she couldn’t help her. That was nothing to get angry about. And now it may have cost Alessa her life. She would never forgive herself if something happened to the girl because of her, after all this time.

Out of habit, she started chewing on a lock of hair, as she had a tendency to do when she was so nervous she couldn’t stand it. She was worried. Very worried. She knew Alessa could take care of herself; the girl, no, _woman_ Lisa corrected herself, had certainly proven that just by being alive. But she had also been gone for nearly three hours. And after what she said to her… She would never forgive herself if something happened to Alessa because of her. Lisa still found it hard to believe her old patient had been alive and well all these years.

At one point while she was waiting, Lisa overheard a conversation Alessa was having with someone, in the Otherworld. Oh God, what Alessa was saying couldn’t be true…it was bad enough the girl had lain in a burnt coma for seven years, but now this on top of everything. She saw only bits and pieces of the conversation, but that was enough. She blocked out all the images, closing off her mind to the tableau of images and words coming at her from the Otherworld. She was not going to listen to this.

She was in the exam room downing a health drink when she felt it: an almost imperceptible shift in the air that signified the opening and closing of something akin to a portal. Someone, or something, just crossed over from the Otherworld.

Lisa rushed out of the office. She checked all around the lobby, but there was still no one else there. Undaunted, she reached out with her senses. She smiled when she sensed Alessa’s presence nearby. 

Alessa was outside, sitting on the steps of the hospital entrance when Lisa found her. Lisa almost smiled, but then she remembered how upset they were at each other. Lisa approached her tentatively, not wanting to startle her in a negative way. Alessa turned her head, and she gaped minutely at the sight of the person she thought long gone, but then she went back to her usual impassive face.

“What are you doing here?”

“What do you mean ‘what am I doing here’?” Lisa asked in disbelief. “I’m here for you. 

Alessa stared skeptically at her. “Really? Why? Are you going to yell at me again?” 

“No,” Lisa hurriedly assured her. “No. I shouldn’t have done that. It was a mistake, and I’m sorry.”

Alessa glance at her curiously. “Really? Wow, an apology from someone who nearly slapped my face off a while ago,” she deadpanned. 

Lisa winced. “Alessa, please…”

“What made you change your mind?”

Lisa hesitated for a long time. “I heard what you said in the Otherworld.”

“You were watching?”

“Yeah, I was watching,” Lisa nodded. She answered Alessa’s unspoken question. “I’m sorry I didn’t help you out, but, I try my best to stay away from that place. It scares me.” 

“Understandable.”

Lisa felt compelled to elaborate. “Those monsters don’t just come out of thin air, you know,” she said solemnly. She didn’t want Alessa to think she was a coward. She just knew there were certain places in this town she couldn’t afford to venture into if she hoped to retain what was left of her sanity. 

“I see,” Alessa said, grimacing as she understood what Lisa was implying. She’d wondered about that, where the demons she kept encountering came from. Somehow, she wasn’t surprised to find out they had something to do with the victims of this place. She would expect no less from the puppet masters behind this place.

“So, given that,” she went on, nonchalantly. “How do I know you’re the real Lisa? How can I be sure you aren’t just another one of those monsters that just happens to look exactly like her?”

Lisa sighed. “Alessa, we’ve been over this before…”

“Yeah, right before you bit my head off about not caring about you,” Alessa said, matching Lisa’s tone in frustration. 

“The Lisa I remember wouldn’t have yelled at me like that,” Alessa went on, starting to grow upset. “She was a kind and wonderful person who treated me with respect. She never would have accused me of trying to ruin her life!”

Alessa paused. When she spoke, her voice was strained with emotion. “That really hurt.” All her earlier pretenses of apologizing to Lisa had gone out the window. She had wanted to apologize to Lisa, so that she wouldn’t be alone in this place, but now that she looked at her she realized that she could not apologize to this woman. She was still too hurt. Alessa began to break down, slowly losing control over herself. She could feel the tears welling up inside her, threatening to burst out like a ruptured dam at any minute. It was too much. The words Lisa had told her were too hurtful. The emotions she was feeling were too overwhelming, too painful for her to keep them inside. She would not cry, she told herself repeatedly. She would not cry over this. She still had her pride, damn it, and she would not apologize for something she did not do. But it was a losing battle. She began crying freely, letting the tears fall down her cheeks and trying not to hyperventilate too much. She didn’t bother to hold them back, and knew it was pointless to even try.

Lisa sat down next to her on the steps. She had seen Alessa reaching the edge, and she saw her face scrunching up in a raw display of emotion, as she struggled to control her tears. The revelation filled Lisa with a sense of horror. Oh God, I caused this, she thought. Alessa began to cry, and Lisa was struck with the realization that she was responsible for this. She had hurt Alessa. This woman hadn’t done anything to ruin her life. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, metaphorically speaking. She had hurt her, and the revelation was a tough one for Lisa to take. Alessa was broken. Lisa had lashed out at her in anger, and she had no right to do that whatsoever. Not when this woman had been through so much already. She had violated her nurse’s oath to never hurt people, and the thought made Lisa feel nauseous. She was a terrible, awful human being.

Lisa tried to pull her into a hug. “Lisa, no,” Alessa fought as Lisa tried to pull her close, clenching her fingers tightly and shaking her head. But it was a struggle she lost, as Lisa pulled her into an embrace. She held her close, despite Alessa’s attempts to get away. Alessa still resisted, shaking her head and denying it as she gave weak pushes, but it was a useless gesture against Lisa at this point. Lisa pressed Alessa’s head against her breast, and held her tightly in her arms. Alessa settled against the soft nurse, and she began to cry freely with no compulsion to hold herself back. There was no shame in letting herself lose it at this point. Lisa gently patted the girl’s back, comforting her as best as she could while holding her. Her heart ached for Alessa, but this was the only thing she could do for her right now. Lisa pressed a cool kiss to Alessa’s forehead, letting her know that she wasn’t alone in this. She had someone here.

They stayed there for a while, crying together and holding each other while the fog passed them by in the empty accursed town. There were no monsters that came to bother them, and no threats presented themselves at this time. For which they were glad; they couldn’t have handled dealing with a threat at the moment. They lingered there, content to simply rest in each other’s arms and let Alessa cry out all the emotion that had accumulated in her over the past few hours. The emotion poured out of her in waves, causing her to cling tightly to Lisa’s form, while the nurse held her tightly in her arms. For once, there was nothing chasing them except the past, and the miracle of them finally having a moment together again. The brunette girl sunk into the older woman’s larger grasp, Lisa offering her all the support she needed.

Eventually, Lisa pulled away and faced Alessa directly. Lisa stared into her eyes, with her own tears reflecting in her irises. “I am so sorry for what I said to you,” she said, her own voice breaking a bit in emotion. “You didn’t ruin my life. I never should have said those things to you,” Lisa said, with all the sincerity she could muster. It was the least she could do.

Alessa nodded quietly, not trusting herself to say a word. She simply lay across the nurse’s shoulders, and rested her head on her chest again. Lisa simply laid a hand on her scalp, cradling her head gently against her shoulder blade. There was no need for the nurse to say anything else.

For once the town of Silent Hill was entirely peaceful to its residents, permanent or otherwise, while the two lost souls recovered in each other’s arms, blocking out all else.

 

~

 

“Why did you send her to my father?” Claudia burst out. 

“Was that wrong?” Vincent asked with exaggerated innocence. 

“Bastard,” Claudia growled, enraged at his smugness. Vincent merely smirked. A lesser man might have been intimidated by the look of rage on the pale blonde’s face. Not him. He was far too used to it. 

The minute Claudia entered the motel room, Vincent knew his gamble had worked. At last that bastard Leonard was dead. Good riddance. Perhaps Claudia’s father truly was a great man, once, but the Leonard Wolf he had come to know personally was a deluded, petty, tyrannical monster who beat his own daughter into submission and raged against anyone he didn’t approve of. 

Vincent knew that first hand. More than once had he found himself on the receiving end of a vicious _scolding_ from the supposedly wise “Father Leonard”. He harbored no remorse over orchestrating the old parasite’s demise. Leonard was nothing more than an animal; an insidious beast who preyed on victims too weak or reluctant to fight back. Now that justice had finally been served, Vincent hoped the bastard spent eternity rotting in Hell like the depraved garbage he was. 

Claudia should have been equally as thrilled. And yet, Vincent sensed she was genuinely outraged. That surprised him. More than anyone, Claudia had earned the right to be elated over Leonard’s death. The torrent of abuse, both physical and mental, that she had endured at his hands was abominable. Vincent suspected often strayed into sexual assault. No, scratch that. He **knew** Leonard crossed that boundary long ago. The signs were all there. Especially if he took into consideration the few nights of earthly passion he and Claudia had shared before her descent into madness. She was terrified of any sexual contact, and a person didn’t reach that point without a history of molestation. 

In Claudia’s case, such punishment probably started when she was very young. And that led to another unsettling conclusion. Claudia only had one single friend as a child and that was Alessa. From what Vincent knew, the two girls spent a lot of time staying at each other’s houses. Therefore, if Leonard took advantage of his daughter during that time, there was a sizable chance he took advantage of Alessa as well. 

The thought made Vincent ill. Again he felt a strong current of anger and hatred. A depraved, embittered fool like Leonard didn’t deserve to experience the delights of the Holy One’s body, especially so many years before she matured enough to even learn about sexual pleasure, much less appreciate its beauty for herself. 

Alessa deserved better than that. She deserved a loyal follower, not a hideously perverted tormentor. Someone who would worship her and treat her like the Goddess she truly was.

Someone like him. 

“You knew what would happen,” Claudia accused. “It’s your fault that he-”

“But surely it’s a good thing. It means that he was one of God’s beloved, no?” Vincent said. The tone was mocking, but there was a hint of legitimate curiosity. Apparently it was lost on Claudia. She gave Vincent a steely glare.

“Those who mock God shall never receive salvation,” the pale woman bit out. You’ll go to Hell, Vincent! You’ll never feel the joy of God’s everlasting paradise!” She felt a rage she had never known before, knowing this man had manipulated her father into meeting his doom. Vincent stared at her with an asking glance, and she met his gaze right back. She was outraged, and by right she should be! What kind of daughter was she, if she didn’t defend _her own father_? But it wasn’t perfect by any means. Vincent’s sardonic rant had brought up a very valid point, one she wasn’t prepared to face. A nagging little voice whispered at the back of her mind, telling her that he was stating the truth. She had tried to ignore it, but it was there, pushing her at every turn. By any means, she should be outraged. She knew that. But it was a conflicted feeling ultimately. She was confused. Claudia looked down from his gaze. Her father was an unstable man, but the idea of Alessa shooting him, stabbing him, and mauling him to a pulp, like Claudia knew she had, was disturbing. It just wasn’t right.

Vincent rolled his eyes. “Oh not that crap again! Damn it, isn’t it enough that’s all you rant about nowadays? Can’t you leave it alone for just one second?” He knew he was pushing it, but he didn’t care. He was tired of hearing this utter garbage day after day. 

_Where did I go wrong?_ He asked himself. _Why couldn’t I preserve her?_

Claudia scoffed. “Oh, what do you know anyway?” Foolish man, she thought. Why couldn’t he just stay out of this? 

Vincent offered her a feral smirk. “I know about the pleasures of this world. The same ones I introduced to you so proficiently.” 

Claudia felt herself blush, a bit of color flushing her pale features. She knew full well what he was referring to. And truth be told, she still couldn’t bring herself to hate him for it. Not in the least. 

“And I want to find my happiness while I’m still here.” Another knowing look. “You hated your father, didn’t you?” Claudia avoided his gaze. “I saw the way he hit you, kicked you, and made you cry. And,” he paused dramatically. “We both know he did much more than that.”

Claudia’s breath caught in her throat. She felt like her heart stopped, prompting her to place a hand on her chest to make sure it was still beating. No, she told herself. He couldn’t know. That…that was her darkest secret. He couldn’t know.

But he did.

“What did he do to you, Claudia?” The question was merely rhetorical. Vincent knew full well. He just wanted to hear her say it. 

“I…I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Her voice was weak, enough so for Vincent to perceive the trembling…the fear…belying the denial. She was afraid. Afraid of her shameful secret being exposed.

“On the contrary. I think you do,” he countered. “Tell me what he did to you, Claudia,” he ordered, allowing a surprising amount of authority into his inflection. 

“…I can’t.” Claudia choked out. 

Vincent nearly growled. Foolish woman. He would have to do this the hard way. “Well, I’ll tell you then. He raped you, didn’t he?”

The pale blonde looked stricken, as if Vincent had slapped her right in the face. 

“No…”

“He raped you and Alessa when you were children. And after Alessa escaped her torment here, he continued to do it to you.” 

“No…” She was close to sobbing now. 

“Yes.” The word was a dagger on the tip of Vincent’s tongue, cutting deep into Claudia’s soul. “Don’t lie to me, Claudia. I’m not so easily blinded. You **know** it’s the truth.” 

The harsh rebuke broke her. “Yes! It is!” Claudia cried. Without saying a word, Vincent took her into his arms. He held her close, but not out of sympathy. More like pity. Claudia cried briefly into his vest, before glancing up with the same hardened, fanatical eyes Vincent had come to know so well over the past few years. 

“And that’s why we need God,” she insisted. Tears continued to flow down her cheeks. “Why can’t you understand that?”

Vincent sighed. He could almost sympathize with her. Almost, being the key word. 

“Perhaps because it’s you who doesn’t understand.” Vincent shook his head. “Claudia, Claudia. Don’t you see what you’re doing to yourself? You’re driving yourself insane looking for the ideal solution to your problems. No, let me rephrase that. You’re looking for the **easiest** solution to your problems, the one that won’t require you to put any effort into fixing your own life. That’s what you want to do, isn’t it? Just put all your ‘faith’ in God and let Her take care of everything, right?”

Claudia didn’t answer. 

“There are other ways, Claudia. Other paths to deal with the ghosts that haunt you. Don’t you realize that?”

Claudia avoided his gaze. She didn’t notice the way his eyes trailed over her body, taking in the curves barely visible through her uniform dress.

“Like what?”

Vincent leered dangerously at her. “I’ve already shown you one of them.” He clasped an almost vice-like grip on her forearm. Claudia drew back in alarm.

“What are you doing?”

His glance was fully suggestive. “You know what I’m doing,” Vincent said knowingly, guiding his hand up her arm. He surveyed her appraisingly through his spectacles. “Perhaps I should show you some of the pleasures of this world. Maybe it’ll dissuade you from this foolishness that you’ve embarked upon,” he said smoothly, guiding her towards the bed.

Claudia grabbed his hand. “Stop this,” she pleaded.

Vincent paid her no mind. “Why?” He spoke the subversive thought. “Isn’t this what you want?” he mocked her, while acknowledging what he knew were her true desires.

Claudia shuddered all over her body. “Ah,” she found it hard to speak.

He shook a finger at her. “Don’t be like that, Claudia. Don’t be like the stupid, barbaric Christians, the _heretics_ who tarnish our beliefs,” he admonished her, taking a harsh tone. “Our Order doesn’t even require you to be celibate. Don’t be like them, Claudia,” he told her; there was a definite hint of urging this time. He didn’t want her straying too far into their beliefs, and toying with her mind’s stability like Leonard, but going too far in the opposite direction was also dangerous; doubting herself, and following the will of those wretched, hag-like pagans.

Claudia had no retort to that. There was nothing she could say, because it was the truth. Every single word that he had spoken was the truth.

She let go of his arm. Vincent gently urged her back.

Inwardly, Claudia cursed her own foolish reluctance. Her will was weak. What was it about this man that sent all her defenses tumbling down like cards? She was normally strong in church during her sermons, but somehow she just couldn’t gather her thoughts around this man. She knew she had strength; she never would have been able to pull off the events with Alessa if she didn’t. Yet somehow, this man always got the upper hand on her. It had always been the same, ever since their childhood, when they had known each other as children. Claudia listened to those around her, and Vincent pushed his ideas on her, and no matter how much she tried, little Claudia was never strong enough to say no. Her will was weak, when it came to him. Damn him. Damn him and his irrepressible will, she thought sourly.

Vincent guided her back onto the bed. She was like a pupil in one of his sermons, staring at him raptly with frightened, yet reluctantly willing eyes.

Vincent stared at her as he looked her over, taking in all her fine details. Dirty blonde hair, pale skin, a slender form ill-concealed by the dark dress she wore; it made it look baggy on her, and he didn’t approve of it at all. No, she wasn’t Alessa; not by a long shot. But she would do, for now. Vincent smiled roughly to himself, remembering all the times he had misguidedly indulged in nights of passion with this woman.

She would more than do.

Vincent gently laid her out on the bed. Claudia stared warily at him, trusting him, but knowing he was unpredictable. She was like a child in a church gathering, he reflected, wanting desperately to learn something new, but being intimidated by what was going on around them.

He began to undress her. Claudia laid back in slight uncertainty. He climbed on top of her, and captured her mouth in a kiss. The kiss was affectionate and gentle, meant to easily lull her into the situation. Vincent moved down her body, kissing her on the neck, collarbone, and chest, kissing the covered areas right through the cumbersome material. He knew he had to go slowly for her sake. Any aggressive action and she would crack. He gave up on trying to wrangle her out of the constraining dress on the top. He didn’t need to have her fully undressed for what he was going to do. Vincent traveled lower down her body until he reached her apex. He hiked up her dress, pushing the material upwards until he had exposed the entirety of her lower body, abdomen, pelvis and legs. Claudia was trembling under him, subtly but noticeably. Vincent approached closer to her smooth, white stomach. He took a sniff of her skin, unable to resist testing something out. Hmm, she smelled pretty good. He would have feared she had stopped bathing by now. It was nice to know she hadn’t let herself go completely. _So why then doesn’t she wash her hair, and go barefoot?_ He thought privately. He would never understand Claudia; she was beyond his understanding now.

He ran his hand across her stomach. For all her flaws, Claudia had always had incredibly smooth skin. She wasn’t toned like Alessa like he had felt, fit or powerful, but she had her own special qualities. She was soft and beautiful, beyond her militaristic cultism. He wouldn’t have traded her for any other way, and his only wish was that she could shake off the beliefs that were keeping her from being so much more.

“Vincent,” came Claudia’s soft reply, barely audible in the room. He didn’t know if she was pleading or urging him on. He didn’t care. She was going to enjoy this, whether her religious background protested against it or not, because she needed something to think about other than those crazed ravings of hers. And it had been far too long since he had someone, waiting for Alessa to pop into their lives. It had been too long since he had _her_. He needed this.

He began to kiss his way down her stomach. Every inch of her soft skin was like heaven to him. Claudia drew in a sharp breath, from the feel of his lips on her skin. She hadn’t been touched like this in a long time, he was sure of it. His warm breath rippled across her skin. He could see it reacting to him. With her smooth stomach and soft skin, she almost would have been classified as cute, if she allowed herself to think of herself that way. He reached the apex where her legs met her waist and stopped.

Vincent sat back and admired the view of Claudia’s whole body. She was pale, the skin having taken on a heavy pallor from years of not seeing sunlight. And where the certain special area was, there was a thick region of blonde hair. Vincent smirked to himself. She didn’t shave herself. Perhaps she thought it was beneath her. Or maybe she was too ashamed to do it herself. The hair covered most of her area, and he could only see the barest hints of pink lips. Vincent smiled to himself. He had left the top of her dress on with the material pushed up to just below her ribcage, so he couldn’t see her breasts. Not that it mattered, he already knew what they looked like, and they tasted good. He leered at the thought. He had worked his knees down to the floor to get more comfortable, while she laid near the edge of the bed. It definitely made it easier to pleasure her. The legs weren’t bad either. Long and lithe, with pale skin running down the surface of them. Although they weren’t as great as Alessa’s probably were, strong and powerful.

Vincent kissed his way down her stomach, and then he reached her sex. He began to kiss her mound, encompassing the entirety of her soft, pink flesh. Claudia gasped as she felt his mouth on her mound, causing a bit of shock. He began licking the soft slips of flesh delicately, giving quick licks at every inch of the pink skin, and planting kisses all over her region. She smelled fresh, another surprise there. He wondered if she had been preparing for Alessa, in the vain hope that she would accept her despite her crimes. He massaged the sides of her thighs while he stroked her orally, running his hands down her thighs and moving his hands in whatever way possible, so as to keep her occupied. Vincent pulled back and parted her lips with his fingers, getting a close-up view of the target area. She was beautiful like this, he realized. He admired the view for as long as possible, as long as he dared to hold the moment. Normally, he would have kissed the inside of her thighs, caressed her everywhere possible, taken his time, and absolutely made her feel loved and welcome, building up the anticipation until the experience erupted in a crescendo of pleasure that overtook her form. But time was running short, and so was his patience. They needed to get out of here, before Alessa and her little semi-automatic friend returned to the motel room, to check up on the situation. And he needed to do this, while he was waiting in anticipation for Alessa. With that thought in mind, Vincent dove right between her legs.

He began to lick at her lips and clit with enthusiastic energy. Claudia gasped as she felt his warm mouth on her sex, exploring the contours there. He took the sensitive slips of flesh into his mouth, as he laved at the succulent sensitive skin there. He traced every pattern he knew of over her lips, exploring every single detail and texture on the slippery folds. There was a shift as he then focused on her clit, brushing his tongue over the hardened little peak. He didn’t have time to love her and slowly drive her towards orgasm as he otherwise would have, but he knew what she liked and what spots to hit. Claudia moaned audibly in a shaky voice as he focused on her center point, working over the hardened little organ. He licked strongly over her clit, using every pattern he could think of, alternating between speeds, and then went back down over her entrance, tasting at her juices. She had a tangy, slightly sour taste that he absolutely adored; it was so much heaven on his tongue. He encompassed her entire region with his mouth as he feverishly licked over the entirety of her lips and clit, ravishing her all over. He went back up to her clit, focusing his entire attention on her pleasure point. As he was licking at her so thoroughly with his wonderfully skilled mouth, he ran his hands down her hips and over her body, providing her with all sorts of stimulation to keep her from getting bored.

Claudia gasped as he laved his wonderfully warm tongue over her soft lips, grasping at the bed sheets hard from the pleasure. By the Gods, he was good. A small part of her was ashamed of what her will was allowing this man to do to her, even as she gasped in pleasure and arched her hips up from the bed. She knew she should be resisting him with all her might; she should be focusing on Alessa squarely and encouraging her plan to bring forth their God, but she just could not resist the affections that Vincent was giving her. It had been so long; so long since she had been touched like that. And the weirdest part was that there was almost a kind of love to his affections. She knew he was a letch, she knew she shouldn’t trust this man at all, and yet there had always been a kind of tenderness to his interactions with her that was most peculiar for him. It made it tolerable, and allowed her to surrender herself to him just this once. Claudia had always believed that she needed to retain purity in order to be closer to her God, even though as Vincent said it wasn’t a requirement, so that she could remain concentrated and focus on her work. But right now she found it very difficult to pull away from the gift that he was offering her. God help her, she wanted more. Despite her own better nature, she just could not resist what this man was giving her.

Vincent continued with his efforts, mouthing the sensitive region with every ounce of effort he could muster. The arch of her hips and ragged cries of passion were all the proof he needed that it was working. He inhaled the fragrant scent of her musk, stemming from her arousal that was dripping down her entrance. The smell was intoxicating, going to his head with a heady aroma that absolutely drove him wild. He began to suck at her clit, as he shifted into a more serious effort. Claudia gasped and arched her back from the bed, as he took her hardened little pebble between his lips, sucking at it and running his tongue over it, sending jolts of electricity up until her nerves sparked with pleasure. Vincent smirked, as he continued to lick her hot pussy, enjoying the moisture that was pouring out of her in a leaking flow from her entrance. He had her close to a release now. Vincent saw her lower entrance, as he sat back for a moment. He had touched her there once during her point of orgasm, and she had slapped him for it afterward, but he was pretty sure she enjoyed it. He leered at her, thinking about how enjoyable it would be to touch her again. He would have loved to take her there, in the ass. That was best served for later, though. Right now he needed to concentrate, and focus on arriving at that point where he wanted her to be.

Claudia gasped as she felt the wonderful sucking motions around her clit. The pleasure was intense and overwhelming, filling her all around her body with a tension that was poised to make her spring forth in a burst of ecstasy. Sin should not feel this good. By God, sinning in this way just shouldn’t feel this good. She felt like she was losing control of herself, and forsaking everything she had ever believed. She felt a pulsing down in her groin, from how close she was to finding a release. Her juices were dripping forth from her entrance, drenching the bed with the evidence of her arousal, or so it seemed; in truth, she was entirely unaware of what was going on below. Her head was distracted with her arousal, and she felt a heat overtaking her body everywhere while flushing it with a red sheen, as her head was pounding with the daze of heady arousal that was shattering her so vividly. Fuck, she was going to come. Her tits were pressing through her dress, tight against the material restraining them as the arousal flowing through her was causing her nipples to become rock hard. Vincent licked furiously at her pussy, and Claudia gasped with a forceful breath as something broke inside her. She clenched the sheets tightly and her back arched off the bed, and her mouth was open in a silent scream as she felt something build inside her and overtake her, from Vincent licking and sucking at her clit. She rode the feeling helplessly in a daze, until she gave a single little cry and released in a powerful climax. Vincent never stopped licking her, lavishing her with all the attention he could muster as her flesh pulsed and clenched underneath him, but he did hold her down as best he could so as to not lose control of her. Her orgasm was mostly a silent one, with Claudia’s mouth open and gasping for air, as she writhed and clenched under Vincent’s grasp in a burst of pleasure. Vincent smirked as her juices flooded down her sex, savoring the taste of her enjoyment, gripping her tightly by her buttocks. The orgasm was a powerful one, shaking her and gripping her all over with a vice-like grasp, until she fell back on the bed in an entire state of exhaustion. Vincent let her go, finally letting her get a cease of their activities so she could rest.

Claudia rested on the bed, her mind completely dazed from their experience. She was drenched in sweat, and breathing hard from her exhaustion that had overtaken her so thoroughly. She thought about taking off her dress from the top to cool down, even though it would be completely improper, in this situation.

Vincent loomed over her, staring at her with a smile. “You see, our Goddess wouldn’t have given us these gifts, unless she wanted us to use them sometimes,” he teased her, placing a finger on her lip and pulling back. He smiled at the frowning expression of accusation on her face. “There’s nothing wrong with sinning sometimes, from time to time,” he said knowingly, giving her a confident smirk.

Claudia glared up defiantly at him. She didn’t appreciate his smugness. He had won this time. She despised having to admit it, but he had. Damn him. He had even made her sink into depravity, for a minute. She had been having thoughts earlier and using words in context to herself, which she didn’t use to refer to herself. She blushed, thinking of the thoughts and how unlike her they were. Her purity was gone. She was ashamed. She was ashamed of what this man had led her to do, and that she didn’t fight to resist him more in her moment of lust. Yet, she could not deny the hint of pleasure she had felt, during the time spend under his incredible ministrations and his exceptionally skilled hands.

Claudia shifted over to the left side of the bed, near the headboard. She sat in a contemplative state, and began to try to regain her balance. She had already fixed her dress, and allowed it to cover her lower body fully again. The mortification was still there over what he had seen and the reactions he had drawn out of her, but she knew she was only human and she couldn’t help responding that way, when he was so good. Her hair was still messed up, although she made no move to fix it. Vincent tried to straighten it out for her, only to find himself swatted away viciously with a flailing hand.

Claudia nearly growled, inching away as he tried to help her. “Let me do that,” Vincent said, frustrated at the woman’s stubbornness. Claudia shook her head, trying to deny the reality of him doing so. “Claudia,” he said harshly, determined to push through the reluctance. She finally relented, letting him straighten out the blonde strands of hair falling down in cascades from her head. It was a rare gesture, that he was doing this for her, with this level of affection, so she allowed him to do it for her, or so he imagined she told herself.

They sat in silence on the bed, Vincent straightening out her hair, Claudia thinking about whatever was going through her mind. Both of them were having questions pop in their minds about what just happened, but neither one was willing to voice them, unwilling to break the fragile truce. It was a fragile truce, and they were so rarely on the same page, that neither one of them was willing to argue about it. For Claudia’s part, she was wondering why it was this man had such a hold on her, and why she was willing to allow him to do things to her that she would never do with anyone else. For Vincent’s part, he was wondering why it was that he felt a bit of affection for this woman, and didn’t just look with lust at her tits and face whenever he saw her. He wasn’t one to love, but he looked at her with more than just a bit of lust and he wondered what that affection meant. But neither one was brave enough to admit it, so it went unsaid. It was a moment of peace, when they had often been so at odds with each other. And so they savored it, enjoying the lack of arguing for once, not willing to break the silence. But the issues in the background were still there. The tension was still lingering in the atmosphere, and there was nothing that was going to make that little fact go away, no matter how much pleasure they took in physical distractions.

If they could only find some way to address it…

 

~

 

The two girls still sat on the steps of the hospital. Lisa leaned in close to Alessa, smiling at the young woman beside her. They had talked about everything, sitting there for the past couple hours or so. Alessa had talked about her life, her parents, her background, high school, the places she’d been to, at length; anything that Lisa could deeem it fit in her mind to ask about. Alessa had asked Lisa about her life in Silent Hill, the things she’d seen in the town, the places she’d been in, and some of the situations she’d found herself in; there were some fascinating stories there, to be sure. All of which Lisa was eager to answer. Alessa didn’t mention Leonard, and Lisa didn’t ask. If Alessa wasn’t ready to talk about it, then Lisa wasn’t going to bring it up. She forgot all about the matter entirely. She moved in close to Alessa, whispering to her when necessary and knowing when to adjust her tone depending on the conversation. She was curious about this young woman and her life. Eventually, Alessa had settled down enough to where Lisa felt comfortable asking her the obvious question, and not having it seem awkward.

“Are you okay now?” Lisa asked her gently. She had stayed by Alessa’s side for about two hours, keeping her company and comforting her whenever possible; she was happy to see her calming down a little.

“I’m all right now,” Alessa said, wiping a few stray tears away from the corners of her eyes. She felt like she had been crying for a long time, and she was physically drained from the experience. It had helped a lot having Lisa there to talk to her, and reassure her a bit. She was mostly all right now, with the stray sniffle and bleary misty eye here and there. She found she was growing used to having the nurse’s presence nearby, and she wondered if she would have to go away again anytime soon. Because she was not looking forward to that at all. Alessa straightened herself up on the steps, sitting a little straighter with fresh energy. She was okay now.

“Come on, it’s time to go,” Lisa said, urging her up a bit. It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate this moment of calm and resting, but they had lingered here too long. She liked seeing the town calm and the fog soothing rather than threatening, but they really needed to get to a more secure place. She stood up casually from the steps, stretching her legs a bit and working out the kinks.

“Do you need any help?” Lisa asked her, putting her arms close to Alessa in case the girl needed her help to stand. She didn’t stumble, but Lisa still maintained a certain close distance anyway. She looked exhausted, and Lisa could only imagine how tired she was after everything she had fought and the things she had been through.

“No, I’m fine,” Alessa replied. She was tired, and she was bruised, and she was aching everywhere from the day’s ordeal, but she wasn’t dead yet and she could still stand. They had lingered here long enough. She needed to go back to fighting again, and Douglas was waiting for them at the motel. Well, her. He was going to have quite a surprise when they turned up. She would tell him that.

They walked off the steps of the hospital. There were still no monsters around to attack them. The fog rolled by harmlessly alongside them, almost enveloping them in a protective cloak. Alessa knew something was wrong here. The town wasn’t normally this placid. And yet, she couldn’t bring herself to care. She had had far too many frightening battles and struggles, to not appreciate this moment of calm.

They wrapped an arm around each other, Lisa sliding an arm across the small of Alessa’s back, and Alessa did the same with Lisa’s body eagerly. They leaned in close, holding each other up for support. It was nice to have some human contact in this vacant, accursed town. Alessa, in particular, didn’t want to let her go. She had waited six years to see this woman again in her lifetime. She didn’t want to let her go now, not this time. They broke the weak grasp after a while, but they didn’t lose the close contact. It wasn’t something they could give up easily at this point. They walked arm-in-arm as they headed in the direction of the motel, where their next objective lay. The fog continued to pass them by, as they walked further into the abandoned shambles of the town, clinging to each other tightly in case they needed to defend each other. Visibility was poor in the mist, but there didn’t seem to be any monsters around. Thankfully so, they needed the break from any disruptions. Hopefully it would last until they reached the motel.

 

~

 

Twenty minutes later, Vincent was still at the motel room. Claudia had departed for the chapel across the lake. She wanted to prepare herself for the inevitable confrontation with her ‘sister’, or at least that was the excuse she gave. Vincent suspected she was simply scared of getting caught here when Alessa returned. Either that, or seeing how much she still enjoyed the pleasures he could offer her disturbed her more than she cared to admit.

He had opened the door for a bit, and then fixed things up accordingly. It was a necessary task, though he loathed to do it. He wanted to leave no trace that Claudia was here, for Alessa to find. The last thing he needed was for her to question him about it, and jump on him in rage for hiding Claudia from her. He knew the woman had a serious grudge against Claudia and she was going to kill her if she caught her, and that was why he wanted to protect her from her. Unfortunately, Claudia was still unwilling to consider the possibility that Alessa would seriously kill her. She seemed to think that despite all she had done, Alessa would embrace her ideology in the end and they would be a happy couple together, with all that sweet-and-sugary nonsense. As if anyone would forgive you for killing their parents and completely ruining their life, Vincent scoffed. You’d have to be completely out of your mind to forgive that.

It was ironic, if Claudia had only suppressed her cultist tendencies, approached Alessa as a human being and reminded her of their childhood, Alessa would have easily been hers. Vincent knew a bit about Alessa’s background, and he knew the woman would have reciprocated her feelings. Instead she had gone straight for the sacrifice method, indulging in her neo-zealot urges and tearing down everything Alessa had built, and now here they were on the verge of her being killed by Alessa. She just couldn’t resist herself, Vincent shook his head. Claudia had no idea how easily she could have had Alessa’s heart, and now she never would. She had taken the hard road, and now she was paying the price for it. No matter how hard she tried, Leonard’s bullshit got into her head and she was driven to do unconscionable things she never would before. Vincent was almost tempted to smirk at her ignorance and stupidity in handling the matter, if the situation wasn’t so dire. Ah well, he couldn’t help those who wouldn’t help themselves, he thought.

It didn’t matter. While he would always care deeply for Claudia, she wasn’t the woman who captivated his heart. Perhaps she could be, if she only brought herself to let go of the past and her blind crusade for “Paradise”. But she couldn’t, and that meant Vincent could take things no further with her. 

No, his heart belonged to Alessa now. And she belonged with him. Whether she realized it or not. 

Vincent was well aware that most worthless Christians outside the Order had little of value. But he still appreciated the gifts the world had to offer him. Food, sex, and money were all paramount. They were what made life worth living. Even so, it was never far from Vincent’s mind that most people outside the Order were worthless. But Alessa was different. The time spent outside the Order had made her valuable and intriguing. She was special. She wasn’t the tallest, strongest, or most beautiful he had ever seen, but she had a spark about her that Vincent found excitingly intriguing. The time spent outside the town had made her stronger, and more powerful, and she was sexy too, Vincent thought! He knew how rare that trait was, someone who commanded both power and beauty, and Vincent appreciated that heavily. He looked forward to breaking her, and showing her exactly what he could do for her with the _pleasures_ that he knew.

He was waiting for her now. She was late, though. Of course he wasn’t worried. It was a long walk from here to Brookhaven, and depending on how tired she was, she might have stopped somewhere to rest. The logical part of Vincent’s mind accepted that reasonable explanation and told him he should just be patient. But another part of him was getting restless. He needed to see her again.

And here she was. Just when he was pondering whether to go out looking for her, the door opened and Alessa finally stepped inside. 

Vincent barely managed to contain his smile. Upon noticing his presence, a confused frown marred his Goddess’s beautiful features. 

“What are you doing here? Where’s Douglas?” she asked sharply. 

Vincent allowed a small smirk to touch his lips. She still didn’t trust him, and rightfully so. Alessa was no fool. She had to recognize that this was a game, in a way, and one he was determined to win. 

But Alessa had proven to be more resistant to his charms than he would have expected. He would have to tread very carefully. One wrong move and she could very well shoot him, leaving him just another rotting corpse in the hell that was Silent Hill’s alternate realm. 

“He had to go out again,” Vincent said casually. 

“Really?”

“Yeah. He left you a message, though,” Vincent said.

He was too casual in his stance. Something was off here. “Was there someone else here just now?” Alessa asked suspiciously. She could sense…something in the air, a sense of someone, but she wasn’t exactly sure. It was most irritating.

“No, no, just me,” Vincent assured her, holding up his hands. Alessa regarded him suspiciously.

Vincent maintained that cool, arrogant smile in his stance. Alessa wanted to deck him, but there was something about punching an unarmed man, who wasn’t threatening her, that just felt wrong. She didn’t know why, but it just felt wrong. If only he would make a move, she thought. “Why are you helping me out?” Alessa asked suspiciously. It was most interesting that this man was going out of his way to help her, and it was a mystery that she was determined to solve.

“I told you, Claudia and I disagree about her methods. I don’t want her causing any more trouble or harm to others than she already has. She’s heading down a troubled path, and I don’t want her to get hurt. And I know what you’re going to do to her, if she gets caught by your anger in the middle of your little quest. She’s acting like an overzealous cultist. Is it so wrong that I’m looking out for her? I’m just concerned about one of my flock,” he said, trying to sound innocent. He had an ulterior motive, of course, but she couldn’t be allowed to know about that. Not yet. His earlier flub had embarrassed him enough.

And probably cost him the ability to have children, he regarded her silently.

Alessa stared at him. “So, you want mercy for her? Do you think my mother got mercy, when she begged for it!? Huh? What about Cybil, the police officer she murdered? Did she get any mercy, from whatever the hell that thing was that killed her!? Claudia’s not going to get anything close to mercy from me; I’m going to make her regret everything when I find her,” Alessa said, slamming her fist back in the air. She couldn’t believe it, the idea that this man would want her to go easy on Claudia, after everything she had done. Was he completely insane? Or maybe he was, being from the Order there was no way he was anything resembling sane.

“You see! That’s what I’m talking about! You’re going to kill her. And I don’t want her to die. And I don’t want that for you,” Vincent said, pointing at Alessa with one perfectly justified finger of accusation. “I want to resolve this peacefully between the two of you, with open communication and compromise,” he said, putting on his best smile.

Alessa shook her head. “It’s too late. There’s no mercy for her. I’ve already decided it,” she said.

“She was your childhood friend. Doesn’t that matter at all?”

Alessa gave him a flat look. “No,” she said. No hesitation, no remorse.

“I see. That’s rather sad.”

“I didn’t ask you for your opinion,” Alessa bit out.

“Touche.”

“Is that the only reason?” Alessa asked, giving him an appraising glance with her hand on her hip.

“Of course. What other reason would there be?” Vincent tried to play it safe. He gave her his most trustworthy grin.

Alessa stared hard at the suspicious man. “You do realize that I’m a lesbian, right? I have no interest whatsoever in your gender,” she said. It was a lie. But it was easier than explaining her complicated feelings about how she vastly preferred women due to her experiences, and her slight attraction to some males, namely ones who were shy and more withdrawn, and not musclemen. Besides, she couldn’t give him an inch.

He looked shocked. “What? Of course that’s not it!” Vincent protested, reassuring her with his hands up. He was trying to sound innocent, but failing miserably. “That thing earlier was…I was just overwhelmed by your beauty, and didn’t know how to respond to it. You are the Mother of God, after all, and we do worship you,” he said lamely. He gave her a winning smile. He was trying to maintain an impassive stance, but he knew the gig was up, for now. Alessa wasn’t fooled, and he could see it on her face. She loathed him; she was disgusted by him. He had come on too strong, pushed too soon, and now he was paying the price for it. Oh well. Vincent felt the sting of disappointment.

Alessa scoffed at him. That was the lamest excuse she’d heard. “Yeah, right,” Alessa said. He didn’t fool her one bit. That had as likely a chance of being true as the other cult members did of coming to her and apologizing to her for their treatment of her. She wasn’t a little girl, or goddamned naïve. She couldn’t believe he’d be stupid enough to believe she’d even fall for that.

Maybe he wasn’t. Maybe he was just desperate.

Alessa looked at him suspiciously. “Let’s get back to the message from Douglas. You said he left one for me. What is it?” she asked, getting back on track with the important stuff.

Vincent pointed at her with his fingers.

“Right. He said to go to the church on the other side of the lake.”

“The church on the other side of the lake…you mean that old chapel?” Alessa asked him, remembering the structure she used to pray at during her childhood. “It’s still there?”

“Oh yes, it’s most definitely still there,” Vincent assured her. “In an improved state, I might add.”

“Improved?”

“Thanks to yours truly, Father Vincent,” he answered haughtily. Alessa’s face twisted into disgust as she finally pieced his full identity together.

“‘Father Vincent?’ You mean _you_ run that insane cult now?” 

“Don’t sound so shocked. I’m much more capable than I look,” Vincent chided. “And I prefer that you not refer to my organization as a ‘cult’. We’re far more sophisticated than that.”

Alessa scoffed. “Whatever. I suppose Claudia’s there right now?”

Vincent raised his eyebrows. “Very good. I didn’t even have to give you a hint,” he praised. 

“Don’t sound so shocked,” Alessa said mockingly. “Is that all?”

“It is concerning Douglas.” 

A cryptic response; her eyes narrowed. “Meaning?” 

“You know what I mean. Are you honestly telling me you haven’t considered my offer?”

“No, I haven’t. Because there’s nothing to consider. I won’t go back to the Order, especially not for you,” Alessa declared. Vincent shifted uncomfortably under the daggers she glared at him. “Don’t you get it? Your so-called ‘God’ is nothing more than some demonic monster that nearly ruined my life. You don’t have the slightest idea what that beast did to me, how it tormented me night and day, every single day, for seven goddamn years. That thing put me through Hell incarnate, until I wanted so badly for somebody, anybody, to just kill me so I could finally die and escape that agony. And after all this, you expect me to come back and play out the same bullshit all over again?”

Vincent was taken aback at the level of hatred in her voice. Alessa was shaking with emotion. Her eyes showed a depth of torment he couldn’t even begin to fathom, and for a moment, he wondered if he should seriously listen to her. 

Was she right? Was their God really just some hideous abomination the likes of which he couldn’t even imagine? Or had Dahlia simply done something to make her believe that? He wouldn’t put anything past that deranged old hag. 

For all his vices, Vincent did consider himself a faithful follower of God, if from a somewhat distanced point of view. He had made that offer to broker peace between Claudia and Alessa, so that he wouldn’t lose one of his most faithful followers. He was still convinced that it was Claudia’s actions, not their God, that was causing the problems here. But at this moment, he had to admit he was feeling something he never had before: doubt. And fear. Fear of what he wasn’t sure, but suddenly, he didn’t feel nearly as secure in this place anymore.

Oblivious to the conflict arising in him, Alessa continued. “And what about my mother? She’s dead because of you and your God! My own childhood friend murdered her! What does that tell you about how sick and twisted you all are?” she screamed.

Vincent held up his hands. “All right, I get it. You’re not coming back to us. You’re never going to forgive Claudia, I get it,” he said. Vincent frowned at the growling young woman before him. She was too full of anger and hatred, he realized, too aggressive and prone to violent actions. There was no way she was going to return to the Order, and even less that she was going to broker a peace between her and Claudia. Taking her was going to be much harder than he realized, he contemplated. And she inspired doubts in him, which couldn’t be allowed to progress. He needed his faith. “Let’s just move on,” he said. For a moment, he contemplated if he should just let her go completely as far as his really imaginative desire, but he decided against it. He wanted her too much. He decided to change the subject.

Alessa smiled pleasantly as if nothing had happened. “So…the church on the other side of the lake?” she asked nonchalantly, with her hand on the side of her hip.

Vincent recovered. “Yes! It’s on the other side of the lake,” he said, pointing his fingers at her. He was grateful for the subject change. “The north side, specifically,” he continued.

Alessa mused on that. “The north side of the lake,” she said contemplatively.

Vincent continued with his advice. “If you’re going, you’d better go through the amusement park. It’s probably the only way in now,” he advised her. The young woman listened carefully, wondering what had happened to the other entrances. “Go northwest on Nathan Avenue. It’s a bit far, but closer than heaven!” Vincent said, giving her his winning smile. Alessa wanted to punch it off his face.

Alessa stared suspiciously at him. Lakeside Amusement Park was a bit far to walk to, but she guessed she would have to go on foot. There was no way she could hotwire a car and drive there. She considered if this was some kind of trap he was setting, but she dismissed it. He didn’t seem too fond of Claudia, and she doubted he would be stupid enough to lay a trap to her face knowing the consequences. “Fine, thanks,” she said. Alessa considered his following statement and wondered if he was mocking her. After all, she was the Mother of God, and if anyone was supposed to know where heaven was it would probably be her. She hoped not. Nobody mocked her and lived without the consequences of it.

Alessa posed sarcastically. “Is that it for the message?” she asked. She wouldn’t put it past him to come up with something to stay here for.

Vincent nodded eagerly. “Uh huh,” he said, with a sly smile on his face.

Alessa nodded in satisfaction. “Good. Now get the hell out of here,” she responded. Vincent frowned at that, but Alessa couldn’t care less. She wouldn’t put it past him to try to convince her of something else, and she didn’t want to talk to him any further. This man’s sheer presence irritated her; like a vile, slimy serpent that slithered all over her body and just wouldn’t go away. And she needed the hotel room to rest. She didn’t want to spend any more time in front of him than was absolutely necessary. “I need to rest. If I go out there like this, I’m not going to be able to fight her,” she said, hoping he would take the hint. She didn’t want to irritate him any further, but she also didn’t care to be in his presence any longer. Whatever scheme he had cooked up would fail, if she wasn’t rested enough to confront the Order. She needed him out of here.

Vincent frowned at that directive; the unspoken question was on the tip of his tongue: ‘isn’t this my hotel room?’ he questioned sardonically. But he let it go, determined to keep his private thoughts at bay. Alessa obviously wasn’t feeling any bonds of friendship at the moment, and if he pushed her any further he might lose her. She might lash out at him in anger, and then he would be unable to convince her to come to his side about anything. Distantly, he wondered what sort of life Alessa had lived, that her first response to anything was violence. Regardless, he couldn’t afford that, and so he had to keep his mouth shut. It stung, but he would swallow his pride. It wasn’t the first time he had done so, for the sake of something better.

Alessa paused, looking at the ground. Vincent sensed she had something to ask, but was uncertain. “What is it?”

The woman furrowed her brow. “Douglas really said that?” Alessa asked, sounding skeptical.

Vincent turned. “What’s wrong, you don’t trust me?” he gave her a roguish grin.

Alessa gave him a look that clearly indicated it was better not to hear the answer to that. Vincent smirked at her smugly.

Vincent began walking towards the door. As he maintained his stride, he thought about what he expected when he had come here. She was tougher than he expected, and he knew now that it was going to be a challenge to get to her. He had thought that perhaps her outburst at the office was just a one-time shot that was the result of the stress she’d been through, but no she really was that hardened and tough. It was going to be difficult to break her. He knew that perhaps he should just give up that surface attraction he had to her while he still could, but he had come too far to give up now. He was treading on dangerous waters, he knew that. He still wasn’t ready to give up, though. But it was clear to him that he was going to need an edge if he was to gain an advantage over her. And he knew just how to do it. Turning around to look at her, Vincent got one last look of ravenous desire at Alessa before he left, his mouth turning upwards in a devious smirk. He walked through the door.

 

~

 

Alessa looked at the door, through which the head cultist had exited. Finally, he was gone. She thought he’d never leave. She sighed. She should have just shot the bastard where he stood. Then, she called out a message to the entity that was awaiting her command outside.

“You can come in now,” she said, knowing that the other could hear her.

Moments later, a blonde woman in a nurse’s outfit came in through the door. Lisa smiled slightly upon entering the room, brushing away a lock of hair from her face, and locked the door behind her.

“He didn’t see you, did he?” Alessa questioned.

The other woman shook her head vigorously. “No. I have ways of not being seen, unless I want them to see me,” Lisa answered, reassuring the younger woman. 

“Good thinking. You’ve suffered enough already. The last thing you need is to have to deal with that guy,” Alessa said, sighing with relief. She didn’t want to encounter any more problems than was absolutely necessary. 

There was a moment of silence, while they awkwardly got adjusted in the room.

“You don’t want him to see me, do you?” Lisa said knowingly.

“No, it’s just…” Alessa waved her hand helplessly. She didn’t know how to explain what it was that she was feeling right now.

There was a moment of clarity in Lisa’s mind. “Are you afraid I’m not real?” Lisa asked knowingly, with a touch of awe in her voice. She had finally figured it out.

Alessa bowed her head in silence. As much as she wanted to shake her head in denial, she couldn’t. In some weird way, she almost didn’t want anyone else to see Lisa. She didn’t want to know whether she was slowly going insane, or whether only she could see Lisa, whether Lisa was even there. Lisa was a reassuring presence in her life right now, and that was all she needed.

“I am as real as you are,” Lisa said, putting a finger under Alessa’s chin and giving her a look that might have been called seductive if it were anyone else.

Alessa gulped. That was definitely not a figment of her imagination right there. There was something there, that registered in her core; there was _life_ there, there was passion, and there was comforting reassurance, which above all was something Alessa needed right now. Alessa groaned to herself internally. She didn’t know how she could ever think that Lisa was imaginary. There was a ghost here, and it was definitely not a figment of her imagination.

Perhaps it was just best to drop the subject, permanently.

“Anyway, why don’t we take a seat? I’ve been on my feet for hours.” 

“Sure, I’m feeling a little tired too,” Lisa agreed.

Once the two women were comfortably seated on the motel bed, something occurred to Alessa. “How much of that did you hear anyway?”

“Everything. That guy reminds me of every asshole I’ve ever met in my life. Who the hell is he anyway?” 

Alessa sighed, though she was also a little surprised at the venom in Lisa’s voice. She didn’t think Lisa would ever use language that was so… _vulgar_. Then again, she had cursed Alessa out a few hours back, so maybe Alessa didn’t have ground to stand on, with regards to holding onto that little delusion. “His name’s Vincent. He’s apparently the Order’s new leader. I ran into him in some office building yesterday and he’s been following me around ever since.”

Lisa made a face. “Eugh.”

Alessa stared at her questioningly. “You didn’t know he was in charge?” she asked.

“No, I’ve followed some of them around. I’m not able to enter their sanctuary, though,” Lisa said, shaking her head in regret. She wished she had more useful information. “To be honest, I prefer to stay away from there,” she said, sheepishly. She wouldn’t hesitate to admit it, the Order scared her. They were fanatics, and cultists. And they were fully dedicated to their cause. There was no scarier combination, in Lisa’s mind.

“Hmm.” That was interesting. So Lisa couldn’t enter into the Order’s sanctuary? Alessa wondered if it was because of the Order’s God. Was there some kind of protective halo around there? Perhaps that was an important clue. Maybe that was why the authorities could never get to them, even when they tried. Not that anyone had tried in a while – Alessa could tell that nobody had cared about this place in a long, long time. Or was it because Lisa was dead? Was there some sort of protective aura around them, keeping out the spirits who would do them harm? Not that Lisa would do that. She didn’t know, and it was impossible for her to ever know. There were too many mysteries here, and too many things that she had no way of knowing. She wanted to get out of here to go back home, where things were simple.

Alessa nodded. “I see. So you can’t go inside?” she asked rhetorically. Lisa was a little cowardly Alessa was starting to notice, at least when it came to confrontations. That was okay, she could be brave enough for the both of them.

A shake of the head. “No, I’m kept from entering there, for some reason,” Lisa said, casting her gaze downward. It was a letdown for her, that she couldn’t give Alessa more useful info. She wondered if it was something to do with her dead state that barred her. “Anyway, you said he kept following you all this time?” Lisa asked, changing the subject broadly.

“Yeah, he did,” Alessa said, grateful for the change of pace. She didn’t want to address such depressing subjects any more than was absolutely necessary.

“Why?”

“Hell if I know.” Actually she did, but she didn’t want to upset Lisa. 

Lisa stared at Alessa like she didn’t quite believe her, but she let it go. “Did he hurt you?” 

“Not yet,” Alessa assured her. “Don’t worry, I can handle him.” 

“I’m sure you can. After everything you’ve dealt with so far, I’m sure you can handle anything,” Lisa said. 

Alessa wanted to believe her. But she wasn’t so sure of herself anymore. She shuddered, thinking back to the horrors at Brookhaven only a couple hours ago. It had been the worst place yet on her journey. The mall had been a macabre shock, and the office building had genuinely unsettled her, but Brookhaven had terrified her. It was like taking a tour of the darkest, scariest, most disturbing parts of her mind leftover from her original ordeal here. The gore, the decay, and good god, the sheer stench of the place left her feeling sick to her stomach. Even now, she felt as if the evil lurking in the gruesome flesh-covered walls had somehow crawled all over her body. 

“I need a break from the insanity,” she sighed. “And a shower too.” 

She shivered again, and this time, Lisa didn’t miss it. “The hospital?” she asked simply. 

“Yeah,” Alessa nodded. 

“Take your time. I’m not going anywhere,” Lisa said. She paused. “You, uh…you want any help?”

Alessa was surprised, but she shook her head. “No. Thanks, but I think I’ll manage,” she replied. She was too distracted to really think about the implications of that. 

“Okay.” For some reason, Lisa found herself a little disappointed. “I’ll be here if you need me.”

“Alright.” Alessa stood up and proceeded into the nearby bathroom.

Lisa watched her go, let down that Alessa hadn’t undressed in front of her. The sound of running water soon started up, and Lisa couldn’t help but picture Alessa nude in the shower, lathering her body under the warm streams. 

Lisa shook her head. What was she thinking? Alessa was her friend, not her girlfriend. Heck, she didn’t even know this girl was Alessa until only a little while ago. It was true that she had taken care of the girl for some times, but they barely knew each other. And she certainly had no ideas about Alessa’s…orientation. 

Boy that’s strange, she thought. The little girl she took care of having a sexual preference…

But then, Alessa wasn’t a little girl anymore. She had grown up into a gorgeous woman. But there was so much more to her than just looks. She was caring, intelligent, and brave; little wonder that Lisa found her very appealing, after all of the people she had dealt with. Lisa felt something for her, that she couldn’t yet identify. It was an intimidating thought, and one that couldn’t help but make her a little uncomfortable. Was it just morbid curiosity at how she looked underneath those clothing, after being covered in all those burns? She hoped not; and that it was compassion that was motivating her and not twisted curiosity. Alessa deserved better. It was a little scary for the nurse. Rarely had she felt something like that before, and it was something that she couldn’t explain. And yet, it was oddly comforting that she did. It meant she still had some humanity left in her. 

Taking off her red high heels, Lisa sprawled back on the bed, waiting for Alessa to finish. About fifteen minutes later, she emerged from the bathroom, still drying her damp hair with a surprisingly clean towel. Lisa stared when she saw her. The white vest, jeans, and leather boots that Alessa had been wearing were gone. She was now wearing only a tight magenta crop top and a small pair of silky, dark blue panties. Lisa noted that she didn’t seem to have a bra underneath her shirt.

The young woman noticed Lisa’s stare. “The rest of my clothes are in there,” she explained, gesturing to the bathroom. “They were dirtier than I thought, so I decided to leave them off and wash them a bit. You don’t mind, do you?”

“No. Not at all,” Lisa quickly replied. “We’re both girls here.” 

“Yeah. Besides, I think you’d be used to seeing people without any clothes on.”

 _What?_ Lisa gaped at Alessa. 

“You know, since you were a nurse and all.” Alessa was confused about why Lisa looked so surprised.

“Oh. Oh yeah,” Lisa said, feeling rather silly. Alessa hadn’t been insinuating anything; she was just pointing out the obvious.

“What did you think I meant?” Alessa asked curiously.

“…It’s nothing. Forget about it.”

Alessa was still perplexed, so Lisa decided a change of subject was in order. “You must be tired by now. Why don’t you lie down for a while?”

Alessa shook away her previous thoughts. “I guess I could. It’ll be a while before my clothes dry up anyway.”

“Good. Come here then,” Lisa said, patting the empty space beside her. Having finished with her hair, Alessa tossed the towel onto a chair nearby. Taking a seat on the bed, she lay back next to her friend. There were no spare sheets to cover herself with, but she didn’t mind. The mattress was somewhat lumpy, but not uncomfortable. At the very least, it was something tolerable in a town full of torments. 

Shifting on her left side, Alessa faced away from Lisa. She didn’t stare at anything in particular; she simply relaxed. Idly her thoughts turned to woman behind her, no doubt watching her carefully. How amazing was it that after all these years, Lisa was still here in this place to take care of her? Had she not been aware of how the nurse got to this state, and how painful it was for her, Alessa might have considered it a miracle. It didn’t really matter, though. No matter the circumstances, at least Lisa was still here. That was more than could be said for Julie. 

_Mom…_

The deep pain was still there, hidden just beneath the surface. She was keeping a tight lid on it; now wasn’t the time to get all weepy about it. However, Alessa doubted the feeling of emptiness would ever go away. Douglas told her revenge didn’t solve anything, and she realized now it was true. Killing Claudia wouldn’t bring Julie back. All it would do was ensure the bitch paid the price for what she had done. But her innocent victim would still be dead. Nonetheless, it had to be done. She still had to kill that person, because no one else was going to bring her to justice.

_Her childhood friend…_

Moisture stung her eyes, but she kept the tears at bay. She wasn’t the only one suffering. The woman beside her was too. Lisa, poor Lisa, who had been through so much for the tortured little girl she was forced to take care of. And despite being dead now, her ordeal still wasn’t over. Just seeing Alessa again had to be bringing back some awful memories. Yet she wasn’t crying. If she could be strong after the hell she’d experienced, then so could Alessa. She could grieve for Julie after this was over. And Cybil. Poor Cybil, who’d accepted her so thoroughly, after getting off to a rocky start, and then died for her at Claudia’s hands.

And maybe, just maybe, Lisa would still be there to help her deal with the pain. 

She felt the nurse’s gentle touch on her shoulder. “Hey, you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Alessa sniffed, wiping away her tears.

“You sure?”

“Yeah. I’m just trying to cope with the insanity, you know?”

“I understand.” She did. When it came to situations like these, you either found some way to deal with the stress, the agony, or you lost your mind. While her current existence was severely depressing at best, at least she still had her sanity, Lisa reflected. Even if it was more a curse than a blessing nowadays. 

Alessa took in Lisa’s exquisite visage. She’s beautiful, she thought. Maybe Lisa wasn’t technically alive anymore, but you would never know it just by looking at her. Alessa doubted she had ever seen a more angelic looking person. _She’s my angel, always looking out for me..._

The corners of her mouth curved upwards. She hadn’t really thought about Lisa in years. It was easier that way, to keep away the pain and guilt. However, being so close to the nurse was stirring some very interesting memories in her mind now.

Alessa recalled how her feelings for Lisa changed over time following her rebirth in this town. During her stay at Alchemilla, Lisa had been like the mother Alessa never had. She wasn’t there of her own free will, but she was very caring in the way she treated Alessa’s wounds. She would spend hours keeping Alessa company, reading her nice children’s stories, talking to her about different things, or simply holding her delicate hands, praying that a miracle would happen and Alessa would get better, or at least slip into a peaceful death free of any pain. 

She rarely got any response from her patient, but that didn’t mean her loving deeds went unnoticed. Alessa appeared hopelessly lost on the outside, but she always recognized the attention she received on the inside. She knew how much Lisa came to care for her, maybe even love her. 

Tragically, Lisa never got to know the feeling was mutual. Alessa knew that rotten son of a bitch Kaufmann was the reason Lisa became addicted to White Claudia. Taking care of Alessa was an exhausting, emotionally grueling job. At first Lisa needed only a little help to get her through the days, but that didn’t last long. She cared too much for Alessa and it took its toll. The burnt, perpetually bleeding girl lying comatose in that dank, filthy basement was a human car wreck, and Lisa an unwilling spectator who grew more saddened and repulsed by the sight with every day she spent there. Alessa would never get better, and there was no use pretending otherwise.

Eventually…inevitably…she reached the point where she couldn’t take it anymore. She had to get away. And Kaufmann, that sick, depraved, motherfucker wouldn’t stand for it. She was no longer able to exercise good judgment. She simply had never figured out how to get away, as incredible as that sounded. Lisa was in precarious shape, Alessa could see that now. And Kaufmann took advantage of that. He murdered her in cold blood while that damned Gillespie whore watched with sadistic glee, both of them completely oblivious that they were stealing the only good thing left in Alessa’s life.

Strange, where did she get the idea that Dahlia watched while Kaufmann killed Lisa? It certainly wasn’t in that little snippet of memory she watched. Was she subconsciously picking up on something? Or was the town trying to tell her something, something that was vitally important to her search? In any case, it was the last devastating blow to her already tragic life. 

But just as Lisa reached her breaking point, so did Alessa after her caretaker’s murder. She finally snapped out of her coma, shattering the spell Dahlia had placed on her and sending half of Alchemilla’s staff to meet grisly fates. She didn’t really regret that anymore; most of the doctors and nurses were also nearing the brink of insanity, thanks again to the drug Kaufmann and the cult had spread all over town like a cancer. As harsh as it sounded, she had done them a favor by killing them. Kaufmann and Dahlia had eluded her, but they too had met their deaths eventually from their own evil. And by nothing short of a miracle, Alessa had been lucky enough to survive the carnage wrought by the Order’s God. 

After leaving the town with her father, she tried to put the horrible past behind her. But trying to start a ‘normal’ life, or at least as normal as she and her dad could get, proved harder than expected. No surprise there. She was only fifteen, and yet she had already seen horrors beyond the imaginations of most people. It was little wonder she would have a tough time adjusting.

Especially with regards to her revitalized body. Puberty hit her full force, bringing with it all the awkward moments and feelings that came with discovering one’s sexuality. When she began masturbating, she felt like a whole new world had just been opened to her. After she got comfortable with it, she started pretending that it was someone else’s hands on her body. Most of the time, it was another girl making love to her. And often enough, that girl was Lisa.

She couldn’t help it. Lisa was gorgeous, and she had taken such good care of Alessa given the circumstances. Alessa wondered if the nurse would have taken care of her in a different way, had she gotten the chance to see her patient grow up into a healthy young woman. Somehow, something told her she would have. It wasn’t difficult to imagine Lisa’s soft hands trailing over her bare skin, cupping her small breasts, playing with the soft folds between her legs. 

Fantasies like those had given Alessa some of the most intense orgasms from those early years. 

But then, things changed. She began to move on from her past in Silent Hill, especially her nightmarish coma. As more people came into her life, most notably her mother, Alessa found herself thinking about Lisa less and less, until one day she reached the point where the late Ms. Garland seemed but a distant memory from another life. 

She had never expected to see Lisa again. How ironic was it that her former caretaker would show up again when her life was falling apart for the second time? Nonetheless, Lisa was not at all an unwelcome surprise. And the more time she spent with the nurse, the more Alessa yearned to show her that she still cared. That she wanted her.

Suddenly, it occurred to her that she actually knew very little about this lovely woman she was so admiring of. 

“Lisa,” Alessa began, turning to face her. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure. Ask me anything.”

Alessa hesitated briefly. “Can you tell me about yourself?”

For a moment, Lisa was silent. “Myself? That’s a tough one.”

“Could you start at the beginning?”

Lisa sighed, but seeing Alessa’s hopeful face, she found it impossible to disappoint her friend. She began to tell Alessa about her childhood. Lisa’s mother was a single mother, originally from the nearby town of Silent Hill. She had Lisa when she was only seventeen. The father wanted nothing to do with her, and Lisa’s mother Elizabeth struggled to finish high school. After she graduated, she had to devote most of her time to taking care of her daughter, and as a result, she struggled to attend college. Even so, the family tradition held firm. Elizabeth’s mother was a nurse, so it was expected that she was going to be a nurse. Elizabeth’s parents helped her as much as they could, and so with help from menial jobs, she was eventually able to make it as a nurse. However, it was still a struggle to maintain a single-parent household, living on her own. Taking care of a daughter, and being a full-time nurse at the same time, wasn’t easy. 

Elizabeth’s troubles as a single parent had a negative impact on Lisa’s childhood. Though her mother claimed she loved her, Lisa was always under intense pressure to succeed at everything she did. In elementary school, Lisa quickly learned to maintain very high grades. Nothing less than an A in every subject was acceptable. Even a B+ was grounds for punishment. Still, Lisa was able to rebel against her. Lisa learned to get her kicks in wherever she could do it, doing petty things here and there to annoy her mother. It surprised Alessa to know Lisa wasn’t the picture perfect angel she imagined. She had her naughty side, and it only got more prominent as she got older.

Alessa noticed that some of the stories Lisa told were somewhat vague, like she was hiding some things from Alessa. But that was okay, Alessa would find those things out later. Lisa’s rebellious acts definitely pushed the boundaries of what her mother allowed. There were times when they barely got along, and they certainly had more than their fair share of screaming matches. Still, she managed to become a nurse in the end.

And then there was that stint in Alchemilla when she was 16.

Lisa had done some time as a trainee nurse at Alchemilla during the time she was a teenager, before Alessa came into her life. Alessa didn’t know that. She had always assumed that Lisa was a new nurse who arrived at Alchemilla and took care of her, having been settled with the gruesome task of doing that every day by Director Kaufmann. She didn’t realize that Lisa had already done a stint there before, and knew the Director personally. Kaufmann sent her away to get more training, with the promise of a job if she graduated nursing school. Lisa returned six years later, to undertake her oh so fateful assignment. Alessa suspected Lisa regretted ever taking him up on that offer. She returned expecting an easy job, with guaranteed pay, only to be assigned the most hellish assignment anybody could even envision.

One thing Alessa learned that surprised her was Lisa wanted to be an actress. Lisa’s mother wanted her to be a nurse. Alessa didn’t think she would be the type. She wondered if she could cast Lisa in any movies, once she got out of here.

She found herself empathizing with Lisa’s desire to escape from her hometown and her usual routine. She’d wanted to escape from Silent Hill when she was a child, and it was hard not to imagine what could have happened if she had. She could have had a perfectly normal childhood, with no cult, no bullying, and no supernatural powers, if only her parents had had the courage to take her away from here. It was difficult not to resent them at times, but she knew that they meant well. That was why she didn’t resent them. She could empathize with Lisa’s desire to escape. It wasn’t quite the same, of course, but the situation was close enough.

Lisa found herself staring at Alessa with something she couldn’t identify. She had never talked to anyone about herself before. Not even when she was alive, had she been able to tell her story. She found that there was a great feeling of relief, being able to tell someone about herself, and having them sympathize with her situation. It was a great weight off her chest, and gave a great sense of validation. And there was something else. Lisa wasn’t sure what she was feeling, looking at Alessa, but it was something she had never felt before.

Alessa noticed that Lisa was staring at her with something concerning on her face. She didn’t know what it was, but it appeared to be a fascinating world of emotion that was circulating behind those eyes. Was it curiosity about her or something else? Alessa didn’t dare to hope. That was a possibility she wasn’t prepared to acknowledge, yet. All she knew was that Lisa seemed unusually serious all of a sudden. She tried to determine if it was anything she’d said, but she couldn’t think of anything that would trigger that response.

“Lisa? Is there something you want to tell me?” Alessa asked softly.

“I…don’t know,” Lisa replied, uncertain.

Alessa looked hard at the blonde woman. This was it, the opportunity she’d been waiting for. The time was right, and Lisa was in the pensive mood that she needed to put her plan into motion. She would never again have this chance to make a move on the woman she had admired since childhood. Summoning up her courage, Alessa leaned in and took Lisa’s lips with her own. She softly brushed her lips against Lisa’s, giving her a flurry of gentle kisses, enthusiastically showering Lisa with affection. Lisa pushed her away a bit, overwhelmed by the sudden rush of emotion.

“Alessa…” she started, then stopped. The truth was she had exactly no idea what to say.

There was a soft shush. “I want this,” Alessa said.

She continued to kiss her. Lisa didn’t protest any further, and this time she allowed herself to be drawn into the kiss. There was nothing else she could say. What could she say? This was an entirely unexpected move on Alessa’s part, and Lisa wasn’t quite sure how to deal with it. Alessa pressed on with her kiss, and Lisa decided to just go with it. She stopped fighting the girl’s efforts to show her affection, gave herself over to the moment, and even allowed herself to reciprocate a little. It was…nice. She had never kissed a girl before, or done anything with a woman before, but it was obvious where this was heading. Alessa was a good kisser, if a little…enthusiastic. Her lips were impeccably soft, and it was a much different texture from the rougher feeling of a man, without the stubble. The sensuality of it was actually…interesting. Alessa slipped her tongue into her mouth, and Lisa took it gently with her own mouth, their tongues mingling with a cool, unrushed exploration, allowing her body to respond naturally. There was a tension in the room that was building, and it was growing with every moment, as their actions gave way to a point of no return. It was actually very soft and sensual, and she felt something stirring in her own body.

They knew where this was going.

Lisa nodded uncertainly, continuing to allow Alessa her exploration. Alessa kissed her repeatedly, brushing her lips over her neck, behind her ears, and her upper chest. Lisa leaned back breathless, breathing hard from the barrage of affections Alessa was bestowing on her. Alessa stared her over for a moment, before making a decision. Stretching back, she lifted her shirt over her shoulders, leaving herself exposed in the motel room. She smirked deeply at the nurse, smiling at the wide-eyed expression on Lisa’s face.

Lisa stared at Alessa’s breasts with an awed expression, enraptured by the sight. They were large, pale white and stood proudly from her chest, with her dark rosy pink nipples looking swollen from their activities. She had never seen the girl she had taken care of like this, and she had never imagined that she would ever see her like this. Her adult body was a sight that she had never conceived of. She had noticed the girl she was taking care of growing as was normal for her age, of course, but she had largely ignored it as it disturbed her to think of her becoming a woman like this. But now the evidence was staring her in the face, almost literally. Lisa was still getting her head around that. Just that particular thought – the little girl she had taken care of had _breasts_ – was astounding! Lisa was still wrapping her mind around that. But Alessa had no qualms about it. Alessa smiled at Lisa, making it quite clear that she was very happy at the moment.

She kissed Lisa deeply, cupping her delicate face in her hands. Alessa pressed her breasts lightly against Lisa, making contact through the fabric that covered the nurse’s body. She breathed heavily as she planted kiss upon kiss on Lisa, smothering her lips enthusiastically. Lisa was astounded that she was only less than an inch of clothing away from Alessa’s naked body, touching parts of her she had never dared imagine about before. Alessa looked downward and Lisa saw what she needed; it was evident enough from her body. “Touch them. Please,” Alessa suggested, smiling impishly at Lisa as she referred to her breasts. Lisa gasped a bit as she realized that she was going to have to touch Alessa’s naked body. She had never touched another woman in this way before, in all her lifetime. She was a nurse, but she had never touched another woman in a sexual way before. She placed her hands on Alessa’s breasts, and began to ever so delicately massage them. Not bad, she thought. Alessa’s breasts were firm and yet soft, with the skin being baby smooth. She was definitely impressive, even compared to Lisa’s body. Alessa sighed the slightest bit as Lisa massaged her breasts. Still, there was the slightest expression of impatience on her face. She urged Lisa to make the caresses deeper with her eyes and Lisa obliged, working her hands. She ran her hands deeper over her breasts, feeling every texture of the delicate curves. Her nipples barely touched the crevices between her fingers, but they felt hard and silky. They were beautiful, and Lisa had to admit, stood out proudly on her chest. Lisa knew she needed to use her mouth and bent over Alessa’s chest. She took Alessa’s right nipple into her mouth, and began to get used to sucking on another woman’s breast. She glided her tongue lightly over the engorged peak, and began to suck delicately on the exquisite little peak. It was a curious feeling she had never had before. Was this what guys felt like when they did this? It was curious, because while it was interesting for her, Alessa was absolutely enjoying it, she could tell, from the noises she was making and the gasp she had made when Lisa took her breast into her mouth. Alessa moaned lightly with enjoyment, drawing Lisa close to her with one arm as she enjoyed the sensations and tiny sparks. She arched her back, pressing her breast further into Lisa’s mouth, as she asked for more of the sensations this wonderful woman was providing her.

Alessa moaned in pleasure as she enjoyed the blonde nurse’s treatment. God, the sensations Lisa was giving her were incredible. She wanted, or at least a part of her wanted to reach down and cup Lisa’s ass, but she didn’t know how that would be perceived. It was obvious this was Lisa’s first time with anybody in a long, long time, and she didn’t want to be too overzealous. But she soon overcame that hesitance. She stared down at Lisa’s body, surveying the gorgeous body she had underneath. She wanted to taste those. In that moment, she made a decision. She pulled down the front of Lisa’s shirt, taking the nurse by shock and spilling the contents to the open air. Alessa drew back as she surveyed Lisa’s huge breasts. Oh God, they were the most gorgeous breasts she had ever seen in her life. They were absolutely huge, larger than hers even, with creamy tan skin, and they were absolutely juicy looking. There was no hesitation. She buried her face in Lisa’s breasts, furiously kissing every inch of her skin, grasping the mounds and fondling them. She pulled the shirt further down, further from Lisa’s breasts and relieving the tension of the cloth, which allowed her to further fondle them. Lisa gasped as Alessa kissed her sensitive breasts, overwhelmed by the intensity of her assault. Alessa enjoyed being this up-close to her. Alessa saw that her nipples were erect, and she eagerly took them into her mouth. She sucked the nipples eagerly, more fervently than with any other lover she had had. She sucked the left breast hard, and then moved to the right, holding the juicy flesh firmly in her hands.

Lisa gasped in pleasure loudly as she savored the sensations she was receiving. God, that felt good. Her former lover had never stimulated her breasts that much, choosing to focus on other things; he would play with them roughly, but she had never experienced the type of full prolonged stimulation she was receiving right now. Alessa was good. She knew her breasts were sensitive, but it was entirely different feeling that stimulation firsthand. God, she was making her feel good now. She definitely understood what guys saw in this now, if having a woman scream like this in pleasure was enough to give them a raging hard-on. Alessa was good, and she seemed to be fully enjoying what she was doing. It was almost like she was worshiping her breasts, treating them like some sort of sacred objects. She reached down on Alessa’s body, cupping her rear as she drew her body closer to her. She was firm; Alessa definitely worked out, if this was any indication. Alessa arched her body, and Lisa realized in amazement that she was grinding against her, rubbing her covered sex close to Lisa’s body.

Alessa drew back from Lisa, smiling eagerly while looking flushed from their activities. “I have to take these off,” Alessa said, breathlessly murmuring from the way she was breathing hard. She pulled down her panties past her legs, tossing them aside to the room’s carpet. Lisa was shocked at the other woman’s boldness, and didn’t know what to speak. Alessa sat back and placed her hands over her knees, waiting for Lisa’s assessment. Lisa stared at the sight with widened eyes. That was not what she expected at all. Lisa was shocked at the sight before her, and didn’t know what to say. There was a dark patch of hair between her legs, covering the triangular area of her sex. She could smell Alessa’s arousal from here, and from the dark triangle of hair between her legs Lisa realized fully that this was no little girl anymore. This was a woman, and one who knew exactly what she wanted. Of course, she had already known, but seeing her like this brought that home in a way all the kisses and whispered words of affection didn’t.

She had never dreamed she would see Alessa like this. The little girl she had taken care of had grown into an incredible, gorgeous woman, and Lisa had missed it. But a part of her was also glad to see that Alessa had escaped and had a life beyond this, seemingly with all the experiences adulthood could bring. The most startling thing was the complete lack of scarring, or burn tissue like she had – she was not burned in any way: she had recovered completely, and to a degree that astounded Lisa with her fair creamy skin looking so heavenly. There was almost nothing she could say to express the amazement of the situation. “You’re beautiful,” she said simply, looking at the young woman. Alessa smiled at the compliment, obviously taking great pleasure in being complimented by her favorite nurse.

Lisa moved down to go down on her, if that was what Alessa wanted, when she saw something that alarmed her. Lisa stopped short, as she looked closely. There were bruises along the inner sides of her thighs, over her mound, and along her stomach; just all over her lower body and the middle section of her body. They were black and blue, running along the surface of her mound, and along her inner thighs, and others were just forming. They were pale and discolored, and not yet black and blue, but they were definitely there. Lisa pulled back in alarm, placing a hand delicately on Alessa’s thigh. “You’re hurt,” she said, somehow managing to put a world of concern in that voice.

“It’s okay,” Alessa waved it off.

“No, it’s not. We need to get something to fix these bruises,” Lisa said, searching about for anything she could use in the motel room. The motel room was bare, but maybe she could find something outside. “We have to put something on them. Ice, or something. I don’t know, we just can’t leave them like this,” Lisa said, taking the initiative as the sight directed her into action. She was a nurse and it was in her nature to help people. There was no way she was going to leave Alessa like this. What were they doing? Here she was battered and bruised, and they were getting ready to have sex. This town had the ability of manifesting the most unusual items, at certain times. Maybe Lisa could find something, somewhere, as impossible as it seemed.

“Lisa, please,” Alessa stopped her, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I need this,” she begged her, praying that Lisa would understand just how much she required this right now. She needed something to distract her from the pain. She wanted to _feel_ , enjoy making love to Lisa.

Lisa looked down at the mattress. It didn’t feel right, taking advantage of the girl like this, while Alessa was still injured. But then, Alessa was the one who started this in the first place. Still, that didn’t make it right. Shouldn’t they be getting the girl some help, rather than…getting naked in a hotel room? Lisa wanted to please her, and she wanted to make her happy, even if that meant doing something she wasn’t entirely comfortable with. She was struggling with the image of the child Alessa had once been. Still, she couldn’t deny that there was a woman with a very real physical need in front of her.

“Don’t you see?” Alessa urged her, gripping her by the shoulders. “I’ve figured it out. Positive feelings keep it away. Negative feelings make it stronger. I have to concentrate on the positive feelings. That’s why I was able to keep it away for so long, because I chose to concentrate on what was currently going on in my life rather than dwell on all that past pain. And there’s no more positive feeling than being with you, in that way,” she explained excitedly. She had pretty much figured out by now that the god fed on negative emotions, and therefore the way to keep it dormant was to keep those feelings away.

Lisa considered that dubiously, while she looked at the anxious Alessa. She wasn’t sure at all about what Alessa was saying, and she had her doubts about the whole thing. Could it really be that simple? Lisa was doubtful of Alessa’s claim that positive feelings were enough to drive this thing away. But on the other hand, she had to admit that it sort of made sense. This thing fed off negative emotions like hate and anger, whatever it was. If Alessa didn’t allow herself to feel any negative emotions, or repressed them deep down, then the god had nothing to feed off of. It was a vaguely irrational hope, but at least it was better than sitting around and waiting for this thing to take her.

“All right,” she conceded, and she decided to let it go just this once. It was obvious Alessa needed some attention, and Lisa wasn’t going to deny her, even if she wasn’t sure about the wisdom of what they were doing.

Alessa smiled, subtly overjoyed that Lisa had given in on this one. Lisa had to admit, there was something about seeing that warm smile, that stirred something in her.

Maybe it was just the feeling of seeing someone else happy, in that state. Or maybe she was starting to feel things she never thought she’d feel as well.

Alessa drew her quickly into a full-on kiss. They fell back on the bed, letting themselves be drawn into a frenzied burst of kissing and affection, rapidly moving their hands over each other. Alessa’s hands were all over her, over her back, across her sides, and down her hips, drawing her closer into an embrace. Lisa was marveling at the fact that Alessa was still lying over her naked, and the effect that this wild burst of kissing and rushed affection was having on her.

Alessa smiled as she gave Lisa another peck on the lips, followed by two more. She was having so much fun kissing this woman. If she concentrated hard enough, she could almost forget about all the bad things that had happened to her over the past day. There was something about her that was just _intoxicating_.

“You’re not wearing any underwear,” Alessa smiled, a bit of teasing in her voice. Lisa’s eyes widened in surprise as she heard that come from her former patient’s mouth.

The statement had an expected response. Lisa blushed a bit as she realized what Alessa had just found out. She had forgotten about that particular aspect of her wardrobe. There wasn’t much need to concern yourself with such matters in Silent Hill, and she had honestly forgotten about that talking here with Alessa. Still, she had to say something. “Well, it’s not exactly necessary around here,” she said awkwardly, still uncomfortable with the sudden change in subject.

Alessa smiled at the young nurse. There was that explanation, but Alessa knew it probably wasn’t the only explanation. “Sure,” she said, causing Lisa to blush a deeper red.

They met in another kiss, letting themselves get wrapped in each other’s arms. Alessa gave her several kisses repeatedly, kissing the side of her neck, sucking on the sensitive skin, and kissing the tops of her breasts, brushing her lips along every inch of Lisa’s skin. She left no inch of her neck untouched, ravishing every inch of the skin. “I adore you,” Alessa said, breathlessly murmuring her desire against Lisa’s skin. “Ever since I was a teenager, I always fantasized about making love to you. You did so much for me, you gave me so much to be grateful for, and I always wanted to repay you. You’re my angel, Lisa,” Alessa smiled, her voice filled with love, completely missing the wide eyed look Lisa gave her. Lisa’s eyes widened as she realized the devotion of this woman. This woman was in love with her. This wasn’t just a simple case of physical lust, as Lisa might have been led to believe by Alessa’s rush of physical stimulation. This woman was 100% devoted to her, on a level that Lisa couldn’t even comprehend, and that she wasn’t even sure she deserved.

And now she found herself worrying about that. What if she didn’t live up to Alessa’s ideal? What if Alessa found her to be unworthy of her, or didn’t like the way she really was or her personality or something, as opposed to the ideal she had built up for herself? Was Alessa going to leave her here?

Alessa didn’t seem to be worried about that, through all her physical barrage. She kissed Lisa with every bit of passion she could handle, smothering her lips over every inch of Lisa’s body, worshiping her like she was some kind of goddess. It was a little overwhelming. Alessa helped Lisa rid herself of her shirt by lifting it over her head, freeing her breasts from their restraint. She went back to kissing Lisa’s body, giving her the same level of attention she was before. She shared a steamy kiss heated with affection, wrapping her hands around Lisa’s hair. Lisa couldn’t believe they were breast-to-breast, smothering their bodies against each other. This was more than she ever could have hoped for, despite not really expecting it in any way. Another human being was actually touching her again, and getting off on it, not being repulsed, not being afraid, but simply enjoying it. Lisa had to admit, she had never thought of being with a woman before, but Alessa was actually surprising her. Alessa kissed every inch of her breasts, tasting the soft flesh and sucking on her breasts roughly, before fondling them with her hands. Alessa worked her way downwards, making her way past Lisa’s skirt, until it was obvious that she was going to take off Lisa’s skirt. She paused in her tracks, breathing hard while smiling at her. “I’m going to go down on you, Lisa,” Alessa said, smiling eagerly at the flustered sweaty nurse. Lisa panicked a little bit for a moment. Go down on her - - ? That meant, was Alessa going to put her mouth on…? But she was left with little choice, as Alessa proceeded with her intentions. She pulled off Lisa’s skirt, helping the nurse rid herself of the dull fabric by sliding it down her legs. Lisa drew back a bit, feeling self-conscious now that she was fully exposed. She kept her knees closer, not really hiding anything and also not splaying her legs open either.

Alessa looked at Lisa’s body, a big smile on her face as she surveyed the nurse’s form. She was beautiful. Her smooth thighs were creamy and full, looking very enticing in their smooth plateaus. A full thatch of blonde hair was nestled between her thighs, settled over her sex. It was exactly what Alessa expected. Lisa was modest, conservative in some ways, and wild in others. She didn’t expect her to be shaved or anything. The hair was thickly nestled over her flesh and disappeared downward between her curves, making Alessa wonder what she looked like from behind settled on all fours on the bed. It was an exciting image. Looking closely, Alessa saw the barest glints of wetness in her smooth juicy lips. She was restraining her excitement a bit, but there was definitely a hint of it.

Lisa blushed at that a little bit. She didn’t know whether it was just her body reacting to the intensity of the experience, but Alessa was making her feel things stirred inside her that she had not felt before. She was shaking, she was breathless and trembling, and it was more alive than she had felt in a decade.

Alessa knelt down close to Lisa, getting a close look at her sex. God, she smelled so good from here. She settled down on her stomach, making sure she was comfortable for the following actions. And then she lowered her mouth over Lisa’s body. She worked her arms under Lisa’s legs, to steady her as she experienced this, cupping Lisa’s smooth rear as she secured her in her grip. She had such a smooth backside, she thought, marveling at the feel of it against her skin, and it felt great against her skin, to hold her like this.

Lisa couldn’t believe Alessa’s mouth was on her sexual area. God, this was more than she ever would have imagined. And just the thought of Alessa, innocent little Alessa going down on her crotch, licking her, tasting her, was blowing her mind. She started off slowly at first, tentatively licking over her fleshy lips, kissing her mound, and just gently stimulating her sex. Lisa gasped at the sensations she was receiving from Alessa’s tongue passing over her, and yet it wasn’t overwhelming yet. She then moved on to kissing the insides of her thighs, slowly stimulating the sensitive skin there and staying away from the ‘target’ area as long as possible. She had always been ticklish there, and being so sensitive meant Alessa’s kisses were driving her wild. But still, Alessa held back, not making things too intense. Lisa sighed as she lied back on the bed, relaxing as she gripped the bed and allowed Alessa to do her work. This was the type of thing she could enjoy all day, just lying there and allowing Alessa to work on her, stimulating her to her heart’s content.

Alessa continued to kiss every inch of Lisa’s smooth things, savoring the creamy skin. It was tough being this close to Lisa’s gorgeous smelling aroused sex and not stopping to lick her, but she was determined to restrain herself for as long as possible. She knew girls liked to have the insides of their thighs played with, at least the ones she knew, and she was determined to get Lisa warmed up before giving her some really strong stimulation. She kissed the insides of her thighs and licked gingerly along her thighs, as close to her sex as she could get and ran her hands over Lisa’s thighs, until she was sure Lisa was worked up, and she couldn’t resist anymore. Finally, she moved on to her mound. Alessa almost licked her lips in anticipation. This was going to be good, for her most of all. With little hesitation, she moved in. She enveloped her mound with her mouth, tasting the entirety of her sex. Lisa shuddered as she did so, forcing Alessa to press her down lightly with her hands. She began licking more vigorously at her luscious sex, licking along the lips and focusing a more significant portion of her effort on her clit, flicking her tongue all over the sensitive organ. Lisa was aroused now, she could take it. That tiny little nub was the pleasure point to giving Lisa incredible amounts of pleasure, and Alessa could just eat it up all day. She loved the little noises and moans the nurse gave when she flicked her tongue over it.

Lisa arched her head back in pleasure, as she laid there enjoying the wonderful sensations Alessa was sparking in her. She had thought having Alessa’s mouth on that area, licking her slowly, was an incredible feeling thing; it was nothing compared to having Alessa actively working that area, vigorously licking her, pleasuring her, her warm tongue moving over every delightful inch of Lisa’s flesh. It had been too long. Her most prominent lover hadn’t liked going down on her. He wanted to get down to the fucking, and that was it. Alessa was different. She loved it, obviously. And being stranded here, in the other side of Silent Hill practically, left her with a dearth of physical contact. She wasn’t sure what she felt about Alessa yet, but she needed the touch. Lisa arched back on the motel mattress, grasping the sheets tightly as she lost herself in the world of sensations coming from between her legs. She was going to come soon, and it was a sensation that she hadn’t felt in several years. She wondered whether it would be explosive or mild; but judging from the build up that was going on, it would probably lean towards explosive.

Alessa dived vigorously into her task, working her mouth over the entirety of Lisa’s sex. She was so slippery, so engorged from her arousal, Alessa loved it. Lisa’s fragrant scent was overwhelming and powerfully arousing, doing things to stir arousal in Alessa’s own loins that she wouldn’t have thought possible. God, she could die between this woman’s legs, and she would die a happy woman. This was her childhood crush, her best friend during the darkest period in her childhood, whether she appreciated it or not, the source of her many teenage fantasies, her angel – and here she was buried between her legs eating her out, bringing her pleasure. This would have been the greatest day of Alessa’s life, were it not for the horrible circumstances that precipitated their meeting. Alessa licked eagerly over Lisa’s lips, tracing patterns over the folds of her delicate sex, and lavishing a fair amount of attention on her clit. She was tempted to lick even lower on Lisa’s body, to that second opening between her thighs, but she resisted. Even without the usual concerns, Lisa wasn’t ready for that. Besides, what they were doing now was plenty enjoyable. She knew Lisa was close and decided to push things. She licked deeper on Lisa’s body, laving at her clit and making love to her with her mouth. She slipped two fingers inside her, searching for that spot that would drive Lisa wild, and she found it. While licking firmly at Lisa’s gorgeous flesh, she began to stimulate it, combining both efforts to give Lisa the greatest amount of pleasure possible. The sounds Lisa was making were the most erotic she had ever heard in her life, and she was thinking that there was no way she could ever go back to regular girls after this. The nurse was just too delicious, too perfect. She pushed the tension between their bodies as far as it would go, until Lisa gripped the sheets tightly and arched her hips on the bed, crying out in release. Alessa smiled to herself knowing she had pleased the nurse, continuing to work her mouth over the nurse’s moist sex, while Lisa rode out her orgasm. The beautiful blonde nurse was completely off in another world, her chest heaving from the release of her climax. Lisa shook and jerked under her, shuddering under her in ultimate pleasure, until it was over and she fell on the bed in a tired heap. She was utterly exhausted.

Alessa leaned back for a moment to survey her handiwork. She set her palms on Lisa’s thighs, marveling at the warm temperature under her skin. Alessa tasted the essence of Lisa’s sex, taking in the warmth she had leaked during her arousal. Oh God, she tasted so good. She was the absolute favorite lover Alessa had ever tasted. She could stay down here for hours just between this woman’s legs, lapping up her juices and tasting her incredibly exquisite sex. Alessa sat back and surveyed Lisa’s tired body, taking in the entirety of her sweaty exhausted form. She was utterly exhausted, lying back on the bed. Her body was covered with a thin sheen of sweat, where it was exposed, and the skin had turned red from her exertion; she looked dazed, out of it. It was the hottest thing Alessa had ever seen, because she had done this. She had brought her childhood crush to orgasm, the woman who had been her best friend throughout the darkest time in her childhood, even if she didn’t know it. She leaned in closer, scooting up on the bed to cuddle with the nurse. Alessa hoped Lisa had enough energy left for round 2, because she really wanted to have some fun too.

Lisa breathed in deep on the bed, sighing in the last stages of latent pleasure. Alessa, the little girl she had once taken care of and attended to, had brought her to orgasm. She hadn’t even known that was possible. It had been a long time since she had been interested in anything other than just wandering through the town. She had a feeling of peace and serenity spread throughout her entire body, and she really liked it. It was something she hadn’t felt in a very long time. The little girl she had taken care of was gone, replaced by a woman who had a voracious sexual appetite, and knew exactly what she wanted. Lisa still marveled at that, how Alessa was older now, and had completely recovered from her injuries, to the point where Lisa wouldn’t ever be able to tell she had been burned.

Alessa crawled up towards Lisa, lying up close next to her. She gently stroked Lisa’s cheek, smiling with contentment while she laid there next to her best friend. Lisa looked at Alessa and came to a decision. “I want to do that for you,” Lisa said, smiling at Alessa and really wanting to bring her the same pleasure she had just experienced.

Alessa smiled at Lisa. That was the absolute best thing she wanted to hear. She slid down further on the bed, positioning her body so that Lisa could have access to her. Lisa moved further down, as Alessa lay back and spread her legs to the open room. She felt coolly serene in her attitude, given the circumstances. She was finally going to get something that she had wanted for a very long time. She felt a bit curious as she opened her legs, wondering what Lisa thought of her.

Lisa looked at the dark triangle between her legs, swallowing a bit nervously. She had no idea where to start. She decided to just go with what she enjoyed, and hope that would be enough to please Alessa. She lowered herself down to Alessa’s hips and took a position between her legs. She trailed her hands over her inner thighs, feeling the smooth skin there. She began to kiss all over the region, planting her lips all over the velvety texture of Alessa’s sex. It was a strange experience at first. She had never been this close to another girl’s area before. Alessa began to sigh with slight shudders, as she felt Lisa’s lips brushing over her sex. Lisa began to lick tentatively at Alessa’s sex, gliding the tip of her tongue over Alessa’s smooth lips. It was an unusual experience, but she was getting used to it. She slipped her arms under Alessa’s thighs, grasping her close to hold her in place. It was a new experience, but she had always been welcome to them, even while she was alive. She decided to use her tongue to pleasure Alessa, just as she had enjoyed so thoroughly. She wasn’t going to do this half-heartedly. It was an intimidating prospect, sure, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her. She slipped her tongue between Alessa’s folds, gliding her tongue over the textures of Alessa’s lips. She had dreaded that she wouldn’t like the taste, but it actually wasn’t bad. Lisa smiled against Alessa’s sex, feeling the curls brush against her cheek. She tasted at the entrance between those soft lips, tasting the essence deep inside that hot core.

Alessa sighed in delight as she leaned back and enjoyed the experience Lisa was giving her. Oh God, Lisa’s tongue felt so good on her moist pussy. She could tell that Lisa hadn’t ever done this before, but that didn’t matter. She was a little rough around the edges, but she was also surprisingly skilled at pleasuring her, and playfully teasing her warm flesh with her tongue. She was finding her way around, and she was turning out to be surprisingly skilled at licking the right spots. Just having her down here was more than enough for Alessa, and she was enjoying lying back and letting Lisa bring her unprecedented amounts of pleasure. Her clit was rock hard under its hood, and her pussy was positively dripping with the arousal of her warm sex, drenching the bed below her. She leaned back and sighed, letting her face arch back in obvious pleasure.

Lisa raised her head and looked up at her in askance. “Is this okay?” she asked, and there were considerable tones of uncertainty in her voice. She wanted to do a good job for Alessa and she knew it was considered bad form to stop in the middle of sex, but the truth was she had never done this before. She was nervous, and she had good reason to be. Alessa’s glistening sex lay before her, but the truth was there was no way to tell whether she was doing a good job besides Alessa’s audio cues. She was just too new at this. And the girl was much quieter than Lisa expected. She expected a lot of noise and moaning, and shifting on the sheets and gripping them with her hands tightly, but Alessa was just quietly sighing in pleasure. It made Lisa nervous.

“You’re doing fine,” Alessa assured her, and she felt a bit of irritation at Lisa stopping in the middle of her motion. She was heartened at the nurse being concerned and she was being nice, but still it was annoying. Why did she think it was a good idea to stop?! She needed her to keep going! It was sweet that Lisa wanted to pleasure her, and it was a nice gesture, but Alessa needed her to focus her effort now. She _was_ doing good. She was too mellowed out by the pleasure, so it wasn’t a major issue by any means. This was Lisa’s first time, she told herself. She needed to be patient.

Now that her ego was assured, Lisa went right back to work. She licked fiercely over the bump of Alessa’s clit, giving it all sorts of attention. Well, if Alessa said that she was doing well, then she wasn’t going to question it. She began to lick deeper over Alessa’s clit, with more focused motions, more confident in her actions. She had lots of ideas she wanted to try; she had a lot of patterns she wanted to try tracing over Alessa’s flesh, she thought about slipping two fingers inside her, but she decided to keep it simple. She focused her efforts on teasing that deliciously aroused flesh, and Alessa began to moan and whimper as Lisa increased her efforts on her clit. Now there were the sounds she wanted to hear, and it was rather erotic for Lisa to hear them being vocalized. “Please, don’t stop,” Alessa pleaded to her, and it served to reassure Lisa that she should push things further. She had no intention of stopping whatsoever. She lavished every bit of attention that she could on Alessa’s clit, tasting every little bit of that wonderfully aroused button, and moving downwards to trace lines over her lips and her entire sex. The arousal was flowing pretty consistently from her hot core, and it made Lisa happy to see that juice flowing from her pussy, demonstrating the depths of her excitement. She had a thought to suck on Alessa’s clit, but she resisted the idea. Instead she focused on continuing to keep doing what was working, lavishing long, deep strokes on Alessa’s clit. She gripped the back of Alessa’s thighs to hold her down, and Lisa was determined to make that toughened grip fully necessary. She could tell something was going to happen, as Alessa’s body began to stiffen, her fingers gripped the sheets tightly, and her noises and words became more rushed. Alessa pulled her head down fully against her sex, and normally that would have been a big no-no for Lisa, if it were a guy, but she didn’t mind – she knew Alessa was just acting instinctively, and being overwhelmed by what was happening. She kept at it until Alessa gave a sharp cry, her body tensed, and she gave a second cry as she released in climax. The girl she had taken care of a lifetime ago arched and shook under her grasp, trembling in pleasure, helpless under her full-on assault. Alessa released another rush of fluid, and Lisa lapped up the juices eagerly, savoring the taste of Alessa’s arousal and release. She had gradually grown to enjoy it a lot in these past few moments, and she savored this evidence of her excitement. Finally, it ended. She sat back and waited, as Alessa stopped shaking and settled into an exhausted heap on the bed.

Alessa was breathing heavily, laying her head back on the bed with her arms splayed about. She seemed a bit red from her exertion, and there was a slight sheen of sweat visible on some parts of her body. Her face was flush with the pleasure, and so was the rest of her body. Lisa loved that she had that effect on her; that she could make her come, and drive her to such excitement just by her presence alone. She had never thought of herself as particularly coordinated or that sexy, even though she did have some talent for acting; it was just unbelievable. She was no seductress, but she was feeling pretty confident in herself at the moment; she was a quicker learner than she imagined. And Alessa sure enjoyed it; she was lying back in a state of exhaustion, but it was the happy kind of exhaustion, with a smile and her hands folded across her stomach, after you have had a good time.

Lisa smiled to herself in satisfaction. She had made Alessa come. Just that little fact sent shivers through her body, in a good way. She had taken care of her so long ago, and here was Alessa touching her intimately and indulging in all sorts of physical affection with her, without a trace of shame in the world. Times had changed, and for the better it seemed; never mind that their circumstances were less than ideal. A tiny secret part of her was glad Alessa was here, even though she knew full well the reason for her being here; that wasn’t a subject she was going to bring up. Lisa had been uncertain at first, but she had to admit, they actually did possess a nice physical connection while they were together, and in Alessa’s case, it went a lot deeper. She had to admit…it kinda worked. She wasn’t sure female and soft was something she could get used to, given her preference for rough masculine forms, but…Alessa had her own charms. Lisa licked her lips unconsciously. Oh yes, she definitely had her own charms.

Alessa raised herself up to meet her in a kiss, and Lisa easily caught her mouth in a fervent one. She held the younger woman firmly, their breasts almost touching by mere centimeters as they exchanged a passionate rush of tongues and mouths entangled. It seemed Alessa had regained her energy from earlier, and was once again gearing up for another round of their activities. Alessa flipped her over and positioned herself over Lisa, looming over her with an intense look of lust smoldering possessively on her face. She began to move closer to her, slipping a thigh between her legs, nudging Lisa’s heated, aroused sex. The nurse inhaled a sharp breath. Lisa knew what this was. She had always wondered how this would work – but only from an intellectual distance, because she had never met a girl she was attracted to before. Now she had Alessa, and things were definitely different.

It took a while to get into the right position. They shifted and moved a bit on the bed, with Alessa’s hands guiding her and taking control of her thighs. Lisa stared at the brunette girl in shock. The question rang again in her mind: Again? She was still surprised that Alessa had the energy and the desire to engage in this, after their previous activities. She knew Alessa had renewed energy all of a sudden, but she thought they were just going to make out further to their heart’s content, nice and sensually. It seemed Alessa had other ideas. Finally, they were in the perfect close position. Lisa felt a heat throughout her entire body, which she wouldn’t have thought herself capable of; her heartbeat, if it could be called that, was pounding in her ears. She was nervous, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her. It never had before, when she found herself in more or less unusual situations. And while she was inexperienced, that had never stopped her before either. Alessa began to grind against her sex, moving her hips in a slow, concentrated pattern. Lisa shuddered at the slight gasps of pleasure she was already feeling from the contact. They were sex-to-sex now, with Alessa’s curls and Lisa’s own blending together, their juices mingling at their cores. They began to grind together in rhythm, slipping their hands across each other’s backs while they held each other. Lisa knew what Alessa was trying to do, and she was determined to help in any way she could, even though she didn’t have an ounce of experience as to what she was doing. But it quickly became apparent that Alessa was the more experienced person in this case, and Lisa became willing to let Alessa guide her happily in this circumstance without a complaint. She was happy to let someone else take the lead for once, just this once. The feel of their full lips rubbing against each other was a unique sensation, and one that sent shivers down her back; it felt incredible every time their clits brushed against each other, as they shifted their hips around while they moved in concert. Lisa leaned back against the headboard of the motel bed, allowing the calming feelings to wash over her and letting Alessa take control of her body. It was evident Alessa was stimulating her in a way as to give Lisa more pleasure, and avoiding full strokes of her clit on her end. She was exhausted from their coupling earlier, but the excitement was rising back up inside her again. The curls below Alessa’s waist met Lisa’s hard as she ground her core against Lisa’s center, brushing against the soft flesh there. Her thighs were shaking a bit from just the slightest bit of nervousness, from this new experience. Lisa’s grip on Alessa tightened, as she found herself growing wet again.

The young women transformed into a concentrated tangle of limbs and bodies moving together in an ancient dance of sensual release. Alessa was clear in what she wanted to do, guiding her hips strongly against Lisa’s and stimulating both of their engorged clits and mounds. Lisa had tried to keep up with her at first, but soon she became content to just let Alessa guide the pace and arch her hips upwards in an attempt to meet those thrusts. Alessa’s grip was like iron on her, ensuring that Lisa could let go and didn’t have to maintain any sort of decorum here. She wasn’t going to be mocked for her attempts, or doing things the “wrong” way. Alessa pulled her into a tight embrace, or maybe it was Lisa who fell into it first; it was tough to tell in the pounding crescendo of their pulsing arousal. They grasped each other tightly as they moved their lower bodies in synch, their breasts mashing together as they shared a deep heated kiss and pulled back for air. This was unlike anything she had ever experienced in any of her relationships before, Lisa thought, gasping for breath. There was so much soft flesh, so much moisture, so much affection and sensitivity even with the roughness, and it was nothing like being with a man; it wasn’t better, and she wouldn’t put down all men, but it was different, and it was the kind of different that left her heart racing and her crotch soaked. No man had ever dedicated himself so fully to her pleasure. They clung to each other through a sheen of sweat as they grunted and moaned from the dual pleasure that was trailing from their rocking hips.

Alessa became more focused in her movements, more determined in roughly rubbing her body against Lisa’s. They were close; Lisa could tell something was about to happen soon, and she happily catered to that growing train of pleasure. She allowed her hands to trail downwards to grasp Alessa’s ass, grinding her hips in their circular motion and urging them in their rhythm, as they rubbed their slippery folds all over each other. God, she had a firm ass. She was soft in her skin, but it was obvious that Alessa worked out a lot, and she grabbed the cheeks tightly, spreading them and letting her fingers roam at their edges. She thought about spanking the side of her hard, but she feared they might lose the good rhythm they had if she did so. Alessa intensified in her efforts, as if energized by the urging Lisa was giving her. But Lisa soon found it too difficult to maintain her grasp, and she had to shift to Alessa's midsection for support. The noises came unbidden as Alessa grunted from her exertion, and Lisa lay back as she moaned from the sparks coming from her clit. She allowed Alessa to do all the work at this point, barely moving her body as Alessa shifted her hips erotically above her. She was too tired now, too drained from their exertions to make any kinds of movements, but that was doing nothing to quench the desire riding inside her. It was like there was a fire inside her, and the only one who was going to put it out was Alessa, with her exquisitely rocking hips and all-encompassing movements. Alessa ground into her body with a ruthlessly unceasing pace, pushing her relentlessly towards orgasm. Lisa lay back on the bed, content to let Alessa take control of her completely and do what she pleased. Alessa’s breasts swayed wildly in front of her as she rocked her hips, providing one of the most erotically enticing sights Lisa had ever seen. It was enough to get her loins smoldering. Lisa wanted to keep going, but she suddenly felt an orgasm rising and was powerless to resist it. Lisa lay back on the bed, surrendering her will to Alessa completely and whimpering as the tide of pleasure gradually overtook her shaking muscles and every inch of her flesh. Alessa pumped her hips rhythmically without stopping, watching as the blonde girl tensed underneath her, until Lisa exploded in climax. Lisa arched back and cried out from the explosive orgasm, as waves of uncontrollable pleasure crashed down on her. She was making the area between her and Alessa more wet than it already was, and she could hear the slick sounds of their juices colliding as their bodies slapped against each other. She moaned and gasped in pleasure, the strangled sounds coming from her throat as she barely managed to get any noises out and finally released the tension that had built up in her body during all this time. She collapsed on the bed, drained beyond measure and willing to just let Alessa do whatever she wanted now at this point.

Alessa looked down at her in satisfaction. She had finally given Lisa the second orgasm she deserved, and now it was her turn to get some satisfaction. She slipped her thigh between Lisa’s legs, resting her sex against the crook of her inner thigh, and began to rub her drenched sex against the smooth skin. She pulled Lisa closer to her and circled her arms around the small of her back as she rode the surface of Lisa’s hips with a single-minded intensity. She pumped away on Lisa’s body until she felt the familiar sensation bubbling up inside her, and the tidal waves of pleasure crashed down on her. Alessa arched her back as she was rocked by a fierce orgasm, her body jerking roughly and the strangled cries emanating from her throat as she leaned forward, supported by two shaking arms. Alessa felt the fluid emanating out of her onto Lisa, and she felt herself coming down from the high as the wave receded, her face taking on an open-mouthed expression of numbing satisfaction. Alessa collapsed forward onto Lisa’s body, resting her head against her chest. Alessa trailed downwards, leaving a string of kisses on her neck, until she came to nibble on Lisa’s breast; that big, juicy, beautiful breast that she just couldn’t get enough of. Alessa couldn’t believe this had happened. She had just made love to Lisa, the nurse she had fantasized about for all these years, and the reality was better than anything she could have ever prepared for. Lisa placed her hand on Alessa’s head, content to let the girl draw these last few gasps of pleasure out of her body, and allow her this small comfort. They rested for a long few moments, content to simply enjoy each other’s company.

Alessa flipped off of Lisa and sprawled back on the bed. They rested side-by-side, recovering from the incredible high they had just experienced a few moments before.

Alessa finally spoke. “Wow. That was…” she trailed off, unable to form any more words.

“Yeah…” Lisa confirmed, easily agreeing with the sentiment. She was still breathing hard.

Alessa regained her voice fully. “That was amazing,” she said, and she hoped Lisa could hear that she meant every word of it. This was one of the best experiences of her life, recent or otherwise, and it almost put all of the crap things that had happened to her over the past few days out of her mind. Almost, but not quite. Still, she was serene for now, and she felt a lightness in her soul that took her mind out of the darkness for a short while. She stopped short of telling Lisa those _three magic words_ , _“I love you”_ , because Lisa wasn’t ready to hear that yet, and she wasn’t going to be that cliché. She didn’t remember if she had said it earlier or not, but she wasn’t going to say it again until the right moment.

She really wasn’t going to be that cliché.

Alessa yawned and stretched her arms over her head. She was exhausted; there was absolutely no way she could go out there like this right now, and expect to fight. She had used up almost all her remaining energy during this encounter, but it wasn’t the same kind of exhaustion she felt when fighting for her life out on those streets. Still, she needed to rest for a while, and recover some of her energy. Still, there was one thing stopping her…

“You need to rest,” Lisa observed sharply, from where she was sitting up leaning back against the headboard of the bed.

Alessa stared down with a troubled expression. It was what she had thought, but there were numerous thoughts racing through her mind. What if something happened while she was asleep? What if some monsters broke into the motel room? Or what if members of the Order found them? Any number of things could happen, while she was asleep and not watching the door alert, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to play that card. What if the…the god awoke during her sleep, and Alessa suddenly found herself powerless to do anything about it – because she had let down her guard?

Lisa seemed to pick up on her anxieties. “Don’t worry. I’ll watch over you, and if anything of alarm happens, I’ll wake you up right away. You can rest up for a few hours, if you need to,” she assured her confidently, and offered her what she hoped was a reassuring smile. She could keep watch, monitoring Alessa’s condition with her abilities, and if anything happened, or that… _thing_ that was inside Alessa activated all of a sudden and started to overtake her, she would deal with it and do her best to contain it. She was not going to let any harm come to this young woman, no matter what it took. She had had the first human contact she had in ages thanks to Alessa, and she owed her. The gratitude she had for her was depthless. After the joy Alessa had made her feel, it was the least she could do for her.

Alessa smiled at the nurse in gratitude. “Thank you,” she said, and the sense of gratitude she felt was enormous. What would she do without her? She was growing too dependent on Lisa already, but she didn’t mind it one bit right now.

It was a relief to have Lisa on her side. It was rather heartening, in a way. She could count on Lisa to protect her, if only for these few moments.

Alessa scooted up to where Lisa was and snuggled up close to her. She eagerly put her head on Lisa’s breast, enjoying the comfortable feeling she got just from being in this position. Lisa wrapped her arms around her, and Alessa relaxed fully on the nurse’s chest. She felt safe in Lisa’s arms, she felt secure, and it was a feeling of being loved that was hard to describe; she felt the tension leaving her body as she relaxed in the nurse’s grasp. She allowed herself to be drawn into an appealing slumber, as she felt the drowsiness of the past day’s events finally gaining an upper hand on her.

She was finally inside somewhere secure after all this time, and she was going to relish that.

Alessa allowed the darkness to overtake her, yielding to its irresistible pull, lulling her into what she hoped would be a dreamless slumber.


	24. Revelations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Silent Hill belongs to Konami. No money is made off of this fic. Konami continues to get worse and worse. God help us.
> 
>  
> 
> **AN:** First off, I'm sorry for this chapter. This chapter was inspired by the outrage that resulted when it was revealed that Lisa had slept with Kaufmann in Silent Hill: Origins, and the ramifications it had for that character. I was young in the fandom at the time, and I didn't quite grasp the full depth of feeling, but even I was amazed at the sheer anger for something that had essentially 'ruined' the character. I understand it better now, but I'm stunned that it even still persists among some fans to this day. It turned what was essentially a perfect character (except for one flaw) into a flawed one -- and a lot of fans didn't like it. For my part, it only adds to the amazing character that is Lisa Garland. She's a flawed person, she's not perfect, and that makes her a lot interesting. This chapter is filtered through Alessa's view, and her reactions to what she discovers. She finds out something unexpected, she doesn't like it, and she overreacts rather badly to the information at hand. Some of this hurt to write, because I don't like treating the characters this badly, and it really is taking the hammer to Lisa in a way that she doesn't really deserve at this point. I tried to channel through Alessa the frustrations a lot of fans really felt about the character at the time, and I think it resulted in a much more powerful chapter than it otherwise would have. But at the same time, however, Alessa's behavior is really reprehensible in this chapter, and there is no excuse for it.
> 
> I wrote the early part of this chapter about a year ago, but lost the pages and have been unable to find them. I had to rewrite the whole chapter from scratch, and I think it was better the first time. However, I'm still proud of getting this chapter out after so long, especially since it's not the easiest of subject matter to deal with. Sorry if this sounds a bit like a melodrama from a soap opera. But it is necessary, to make Alessa face certain truths about herself, and the reality surrounding her in the town. :/
> 
> Warning: Triggers for abuse, disturbing psychological issues, and other things I can't mention without spoiling the entire chapter. If you're squeamish or haunted by certain thoughts of your own, back out now. You'll see what I mean when you get around to the middle of the chapter, in the third scene.

**Chapter 21: Revelations**

 

It was a strange, dreamlike void that greeted Alessa while she slept. Colors swirled around her, and her mind almost seemed to be floating, like she was outside her body and watching things from a distance. Alessa distantly recognized that she was dreaming, but she was always amazed at how the mind functioned differently while you were sleeping. The images seemed to be coalescing into a clear set of images, and it was obvious it was already heading somewhere. Alessa was curious to see where she would end up, and what the power dwelling in this location had to show her this time.

She was in a motel. The seedy details around her at first weren’t clear, and it took a moment for Alessa to recognize it, but they gradually became evident. The surroundings were dingy and unkempt, but she supposed they were good enough for a quick rendezvous. The sounds coming from a nearby spot made Alessa quickly turn red and take notice. Had she stumbled onto a couple having – getting it on in the middle of this place? She knew this was a dream, but that thought was very distant, far away at the back of her mind in this moment. She looked to the left and was immediately sickened by what she saw.

A man in a business suit was standing nearby. There was a woman with blonde hair kneeling in front of him, and it was obvious that she was pleasuring him. Alessa was shocked when she realized that she knew the man standing in front of her. It was Doctor Kaufmann. The man who had been her nemesis was unmistakable in his features. And her heart stopped when she caught a glimpse of the face of the woman who was pleasuring him.

Lisa Garland was kneeling down in front of the familiar suited man. She worked her mouth skillfully over his area, using her hands and bobbing up and down over the male member in her grasp. The sounds she was making suggested that she was fully enjoying the experience, and there was nothing coerced about it. Alessa was sickened by what she was seeing, and she couldn’t believe the sight her eyes were witnessing. She watched as Lisa skillfully worked her mouth over his cock, sucking and stroking him with a familiarity that told that she had done this many times. Alessa felt the revulsion and swallowed it down painfully – that was not a part of Kaufmann she ever wanted to see.

Lisa continued pleasuring him with concentrated vigor, seemingly intent on devouring every inch of him. She sucked vigorously at the hardened member in her mouth, focused intently on the task at hand, bobbing up and down over his area, and generally making a concentrated effort at pleasing him. The sounds Kaufmann was making made it clear that he was about to come, and Alessa turned away from the pair, not wanting to see any part of a scene that would only inspire disgust and revulsion in her. Her heart was breaking, and confusion was growing.

Alessa turned away from the scene, and saw something that instantly inspired shock in her. There was a plate with white powder on the dresser, close to the bathroom where Lisa’s red sweater was hanging. Alessa took a closer look and realized exactly what it was. There were drugs on that plate, and it was pretty obvious that there was no coercion involved in the situation. Alessa took a step back, and put a hand over her mouth. Oh God, she couldn’t believe this was happening. Why hadn’t she ever known this? This was all smashing into her, like a brick wall shattering her sanity…

They were fucking now, but Alessa turned away from the sight and tried to block out her hearing. She couldn’t bear to see the sight anymore, to see them together like this in such a manner. The sight was obscene and depraved, and she wondered what the town had to gain from showing her this. Was it merely for humiliation, and to hurt her? To cause her pain…trauma that she couldn’t escape from? Lisa was making a host of noises now, and the noises indicated that she was about to come. That was something Alessa definitely did not need to see. That would be the ultimate humiliation – to see the girl she thought she had loved having an orgasm at the hands of her rival, a man who had imprisoned her and abused her as a child. That was grotesque, and it made her feel sick. All she knew was that she had to get out of here. She prayed desperately for the scene to end, and to allow her to escape from this nightmarish vision playing out in front of her. Suddenly, a hazy aura began to encapsulate the room, and the environment turned to gray in front of her, as Alessa was yanked out from the dream world forcefully…

 

~

 

Alessa woke up with a start, and looking around her wildly. For a moment, she forgot where she was, still caught up in the haze of her dream. It took her a moment to remember where she was, and what she had just dreamt about. But it soon came to her. She looked at the side of the bed opposite her, where Lisa was still lying asleep. Yes, she had seen the truth behind her situation clearly now.

Lisa was still lying on the left side of the bed fast asleep. She was still nude from their activities; Alessa could tell, from the peek of her shoulders inching out from the sheet. The plain notion of being so near in contact to her pussy, those breasts, her rear…all those body parts that she thought exuded Lisa’s sexuality, that _he_ had touched, was a thought that left Alessa with a nauseating feeling. She had thought Lisa was the greatest woman she had ever been with, up until a few hours ago…so sexy and pure; kind and beautiful. But the truth was she was something else, something Alessa hadn’t dared conceive of before.

She could still see the images in her mind clearly, of them _cavorting_ , being together, enjoying every second of it; the images came freely unbidden in her mind. She struggled to hold them back and keep them blocked, not wanting to see even a second of that again.

Alessa put her hand to her mouth. She couldn’t believe this. She had given herself to, to –

…To a drug addict, and a whore…a person who indulged freely in her worst traits, and didn’t think one bit about the consequences. Lisa hadn’t been coerced into taking those drugs; she was taking them willingly, using them to party it up with that godforsaken man. She had su… _done_ things with him Alessa couldn’t imagine, and didn’t want to think about.

She couldn’t take this. She got dressed as quickly as possible. The noise must have alerted Lisa, because she suddenly popped up and rolled to the side, her attention now focused squarely on Alessa.

“Alessa?” Lisa asked drowsily, shaking away the embers of sleep.

Alessa didn’t answer her.

“What’s wrong?” Lisa asked suddenly. The silence that was being generated by Alessa towards her was unsettling her.

Alessa simply stared at her.

The moment of silence continued, until she eventually found her voice.

“You slept with him,” she said simply.

“What?” Lisa suddenly sat up, overcome by the oddness of that sudden statement. Where had that come from?

“Kaufmann. You slept with him, didn’t you?” Alessa accused, pointing daggers at Lisa with her dark chocolate eyes. If anger could manifest itself in a physical way, she would have been radiating heat right now.

“How did you…?” Lisa was shocked. She had never told that to anyone, ever! How did Alessa know that information, when there was no way she could have possibly known it? She was glad she was still covered up, because she felt very exposed all of a sudden. She clutched the sheets tightly to her, suddenly not wanting her body to be on display to the room seriously, or the woman sitting across from her.

“I saw it in a vision,” Alessa told her, her voice growing higher in pitch. She was losing control rapidly; she could feel it. Her emotions were overwhelming her; she had never had especially good control over them, but she could really feel herself losing it now. “You and he…” she stopped herself right there; she couldn’t bring herself to finish the thought. The image of them together…him _fucking_ her, was so strong that she thought she was going to become nauseous from it. How could she do that to her?

“Yes, I did…” Lisa bowed her head, admitting what she knew was the truth. It wasn’t her proudest moment, but she was young and made mistakes. She didn’t think she could be held entirely accountable for them. And to be perfectly honest, she still couldn’t bring herself to fully hate herself for them. Just because she was young and irresponsible, that didn’t mean Kaufmann could force himself on her in whatever way he liked with no consequences.

Alessa sighed. She had hoped, beyond all hope, even while knowing it was true, that it was all some kind of delusion. That she was misunderstanding something, or she was being outright lied to by the town, or she was even seeing images play out in her mind that had been cobbled together from different things. Her worst fears come to life, or an image meant to hurt her by the town that had its own thinking and agendas. But it was true. Lisa had slept with the man she considered to be her worst enemy, besides her birth mother, and willingly lowered herself to be his plaything. She didn’t see him as a monster, who inspired revulsion, she saw him as an object of lust, someone she lusted after and willingly sexually consorted with. She willingly took drugs, and used them to haze her mind while they pulled off those filthy acts. Here was Alessa lying on a sick bed, and all the while Lisa was partying it up and _fucking_ recklessly with that sordid, filthy son of a bitch! How could she do this to her? Alessa had loved her! She had loved that someone came and treated her compassionately, and showed her kindness, but meanwhile Lisa was engaging in the most sordid acts with the man who had put her in that position in the first place! Dahlia may have burned her, but it was Kaufmann who put her in that position in the first place. He was the one who kept her alive, and condemned her to a damp sick bed in a basement. Alessa would have killed him 1,000 times over if she could, and she had in fact at Alchemilla Hospital. Had Lisa even cared for her in the first place? Or was she just some wretched assignment she got stuck with in that hospital, after her _boyfriend_ grew tired of her and decided he didn’t want to give her any more drugs, and have fun with her? That truth made her see things clearly for the first time. Lisa was no angel. She was a whore. There was no light of goodness in her, only a selfish, degenerate human being who acted like a worthless floozy and slept with anyone, for anything, no different than that Maria slut that had raped her and her friends. The comparison came out of nowhere and shocked her, but she didn’t care; she was that angry and upset, damn it.

Alessa felt her heart breaking, and she clutched her hands to her chest to hold back a real pain. She had been so sure that Lisa was the one for her; so kind and beautiful, sexy and loving, tender, compassionate. Innocent. She had dreamt all throughout her teenage years of what it would be like if she met Lisa again, and they were allowed to fall in love like any normal couple, and enjoy their life together. And now she realized, with a crystal, horrible clarity, just what she really was. How could she have been so wrong? Because she had been too infatuated. _Maybe you were too blinded_ , she thought to herself. Yes, that was it. She had been too blinded by Lisa’s acts of kindness, her gentle demeanor, to realize what she was. Alessa had never once stopped to consider that those gestures might have nothing to do with how the person across from her was actually like. She had been so grateful for the touch, for any shred of kindness offered to her, that she ignored any and all warning signs. The unsteady voice, the erratic behavior…those were hints of what the real Lisa was actually like. Momentary gestures of kindness, that’s all they were. And now she knew. She knew the horrible, certain truth. The knowledge was something that made her chest ignite into a million, shattered pieces.

“I’m sorry. I know what I did was wrong…” Lisa apologized, trying to offer any explanation for her actions. To see images of them doing those things in her head, she knew it probably wasn’t something the girl could dismiss strongly. She didn’t want to cause that pain in her.

“How could you do that?” Alessa asked; she was unable to stop herself from sounding judging in her tone. She wanted, demanded an explanation. Alessa knew she had done bad things, but she had never lowered herself to sleeping with someone who was a vile, disgusting example of humanity. “I mean, I know you were desperate, but…I, I didn’t think you’d lower yourself to that kind of example.”

“Excuse me?” Lisa suddenly went from depressed to annoyed. There was something in Alessa’s tone that she didn’t like at all. “What do you mean ‘lower myself’?” she demanded. She put her hands on her hips beneath the blanket, feeling heat rise to her face.

“How could you do that? How could you sleep with that disgusting example of a human being?” Alessa demanded, feeling herself growing a little hysterical. “Didn’t you see what he was? Didn’t you realize how disgusting and depraved he is? I don’t care how young you were. How could you sleep with him like…” Alessa cut herself off, not knowing what epitaph was vile enough to describe that horrid, revolting example of a man.

“Like what?” Lisa’s expression turned challenging. A nasty little frown was playing around her lips, and a light that could almost be called a fire was blazing in her eyes.

“Damn it, are you going to make me say it?!” Alessa was angry; she felt the blood boiling in her veins, and her pressure rising to dangerous levels. “How could you do this to me? How could you sleep with that vile piece of filth like, like…like you were one of the random sluts he picked up off the streets?” she demanded. There, she’d said it. It was the word she’d been thinking of all throughout this conversation. The nasty, awful little word that she’d always hated, a word misused by countless men and some women around the world. _Slut._ Such a simple word; and yet one that carried a world of connotation behind it. Now she finally understood what some men meant when they used that term after being betrayed by some two-faced woman.

“A slut? Really?” Lisa asked incredulously. Her eyebrows were raised. That should have been a negative sign right there. “What about you, Alessa? How many girls have you slept with? We’ve only known each other again for a few hours, and you already rushed to sleep with me,” Lisa said, with a nasty little expression on her face. A thought occurred to her suddenly. “What about that cop you mentioned? Did you sleep with her, too? So who’s the slut now?” she demanded. She paused, drawing her lips together. “I notice you pulled my head down when we were together, just like he used to do. I guess you and he are not so different, after all,” she remarked snidely, twisting her lips in a savage grin.

Alessa shot to her feet. “I have to get out of here now,” she said. The idea that she could be compared to Kaufmann of all people, vile, dirty, filthy, degenerate, amoral Kaufmann, was so repulsive it almost made her want to throw up. She was not Kaufmann! So, she had lost control for a while…it didn’t mean that she was on the same level as that vile man. The air had suddenly taken on a frosty demeanor. That hurt. The accusation that she was just as vile as the woman sitting across from her. Was Lisa really turning this on her? She couldn’t believe the nurse that had taken care of her would throw that leveling accusation at her. It was true that she had engaged in several relationships throughout her life, but every one of them had been born out of need. It wasn’t because she wanted to impress some drug peddling doctor, who wanted to turn everyone he knew into a junkie, for his own profit.

Lisa balked at that. “Alessa, don’t be ridiculous. There’s hundreds of monsters out there,” she stated, with a hint of condescension.

“I don’t care,” Alessa burst out, feeling near tears. She wanted, needed to get out of here. She couldn’t stand being in the same room with this woman any longer. She was going to explode if she stayed here any longer, and she really didn’t want this woman to see her cry. Not after what she had done with that…thing. She felt filthy, dirty and diseased, from the touch that _nurse_ had provided. God, she couldn’t believe those same hands were the ones that had touched Kaufmann in his most intimate of places, and then they had touched her, caressing her all over. She didn’t care where she went, anywhere, as long as it wasn’t here. She grabbed her weapons from the drawer and started towards the door.

“Alessa, will you listen to reason. Come back here,” Lisa insisted, still covering herself up with the blanket. She didn’t dare go after her, because she was armed, but that didn’t mean she wanted her to walk out like this.

Alessa wasn’t listening. She marched straight toward the door with nary a thought, intent on getting out of here without hesitation. She ignored any false protests of concern, any fake gestures of care about her well being that were being said in the room, because there was nothing she wanted to hear from Lisa. The supposed nurse was too late if she thought she could convince her that she really cared about her. There was nothing she could say that would make any sort of difference at this point.

“You’re acting like a little child,” she heard Lisa call out after her. She blocked out any such thoughtless entreaties the nurse thought she was making. Even so, the accusation hurt a bit. She was _not_ acting like a child! There was no traitorous little voice at the back of her mind to whisper that she was running away, no doubts that were digging away at her convictions; only a cold certainty that she absolutely had to get out of this room, as soon as possible.

She turned back towards the nurse. Alessa stared hard at the woman she thought was her savior, her incorruptible caretaker, who had turned out to be something completely different. She thought about saying something like _“I thought you were my friend”_ , but that seemed too trite, too inadequate at describing the situation that had revealed itself to even attempt the effort. Some friend she had turned out to be. Partying it up and sucking Kauffman off, while she was lying burnt and comatose in a dingy hospital room: that was Lisa’s idea of dealing with the stresses of her job. She hadn’t been pushed into it at all, she had willingly submitted herself to that level of debasement and perversion. She felt her heart breaking and her stomach lowering itself to revolting depths with every passing moment. It was an insane, depressing situation. And she had submitted herself to it willingly, all the while not knowing what the woman across from her was. She needed to get out of here. She had to, before she lost what was left of her sanity. There was one thing that was clear, though. Somehow she knew, one way or another, her relationship here with this part of her life, possibly the most important one she had ever established, was at an end. She wished she could mourn it properly.

Alessa turned back and exited the motel room, throwing the door shut behind her.

“Alessa, wait!” Lisa called out to her.

Alessa didn’t go back.

 

~

 

Alessa ran as fast as her legs would take her. She blocked out any and all sights, sounds, and details around her, deterring from her view anything that would halt her in a purpose. Strangely, she didn’t encounter any monsters on her way there, for which she was thankful: she couldn’t bring herself to find the right mindset to deal with them. She didn’t know if they were absent for some reason or whether they were clustering in some other location, or if the town was having mercy on them and deciding not to manifest them, in light of what she had recently learned. All she knew was that she had to get away from that place; she couldn’t stand being so close to the woman who had so thoroughly betrayed her. She felt ill, creepily sickened by the feel of Lisa’s fingers on her skin.

She stopped in the middle of the street. Alessa looked around at her surroundings. She hadn’t actually gone that far from the motel, but it was far enough for some room. Finally, she could stop running. Alessa was breathing hard, her heart still racing like she had run a thousand miles. She bent over with her hands on her knees, trying to recover her energy. Even so, it still didn’t push out the clarity of her situation from her mind. She stood up, looking around at her surroundings to see if she was truly alone. She was. There was not another soul in sight. The town was vacant; it was just her and her thoughts.

Alessa ran her hands all over her face. She still felt like crying in frustration, from the irrational nature of her situation. She still couldn’t believe what she had learned back at the motel. This was a nightmare. The woman she had thought most reliable in the world had turned out to be a depraved, self-absorbed, drug addicted slut interested only in getting high with that monstrous doctor and letting him utilize her for anything, while he abused the patient under his care. Even a fuck, with him using her like she was some sex worker substitute, while she was high out of her mind and not remotely aware of what was going on, was not beyond her. She would do anything, in order to get her hands on that precious plate of powder. Fucking disturbing.

She felt dirty, disgusting. She couldn’t believe Lisa had touched her with _those fingers_ , the same ones that had touched Kaufmann. She had touched her in every crevice, in every nook and cranny, and on every inch of her body. Alessa felt like she needed a shower now, but there was no water out here, and there was no way she was going back to the motel. Even if there was water there, she did not want to see Lisa again. She felt like there was a grime covering her body now, and one that would never come off no matter how hard she scrubbed.

What was she going to do now? She was counting on Lisa, to find some reason to leave this town once her mission here was finished. She had imagined leaving here with Lisa, liberating her somehow from the grip the region had on her soul somehow. Or staying here, and finding some way to carve a little slice of paradise for themselves, in this Heaven turned Hell. But now that plan was shattered to pieces, along with any illusions about what her so-called friend actually was. That was before she knew the truth behind what the woman she idolized really was. Now what was her only choice? What was she supposed to do? She couldn’t see one path or another that didn’t end in misery, and pain. Leave the town with Lisa, and try to build a life together on the outside, despite the fact that she would be knowing all the while the truth about her new companion, and that the entire foundation of their relationship was a fraud? Or stay here in the safety of the fog, alongside a woman who resented her and considered her an equivalent of her worst enemy, and was longing to escape forever from her heaven turned hell? Either choice was hellish. Neither one was exactly what she wanted for her life.

Alessa looked down as she noticed something lying to the left of her foot. Suddenly, she noticed just what it was that was lying so tantalizingly close to her feet. It was a syringe. A milky white fluid lay contained in the syringe, floating with a stillness that belied its deadliness. Looking at the fluid, Alessa instantly realized what it was, with no hesitation whatsoever. White Claudia. _Or PTV_ , the actual name of the drug derived from the plant, she thought to herself, staring grimly at the isolated object on the ground. There was no doubt in her mind. This was the drug that had been at the center of the Order’s business endeavor in the town, and Kaufmann’s, making its way into every aspect of the society contained in the town. This was the drug that had caused so much damage, destroyed so many lives, and cemented the Order’s grip over every little corner of the entire town that they dwelled in, much to everyone’s detriment in the end.

She should know, they had injected her with the drug several times throughout her coma, to monitor her reaction to it during her ordeal.

Alessa had never considered taking White Claudia in her life. She had never taken normal drugs like cocaine, didn’t smoke cigarettes, and had no vices like alcohol or other things in her life except for sex. Sex was the only vice in her life, the one she loved and needed to continue to exist in a happy equilibrium. She had always stayed far away from drugs and other vices in her life, both because of the stupidity of taking them, like smoking, and because she had seen what they had done to Lisa in her life and how they had taken her down, in rapid fashion. But she had always been under the impression that Lisa had taken them unwillingly, being forced into it by Kaufmann to keep her hostage and prevent her from spilling her secrets. Now that she knew Lisa had taken it willingly, she found herself taking a second look at the familiar drug in the plastic syringe.

A stirring of an idea began to take hold in her mind.

It wasn’t the physical properties of the enjoyment inherent to it that interested her. Alessa wasn’t interested in getting high with the drug, or deluding herself with an unstable escape from reality, in that manner. However, there was another property of the drug that was gaining her interest quite rapidly. Alessa weighed her options and judged the course she was considering. She had nothing to live for. Her father was likely dead, and her mother was most certainly dead beyond any chance of coming back, back home. She had no other family to depend on her, no one to need her and find themselves alone if something happened to her in this godforsaken town, if they realized she wasn’t coming back. Her best friend had turned out to be a duplicitous traitor beyond any sleaze or immorality she imagined, shattering her heart and Alessa’s picture perfect perception of her childhood crush forever, in painfully spectacular fashion. The Order was on the move again, and they were once again trying to resurrect their god regardless of the consequences. Her friends had abandoned her – she hadn’t spoken to some of them in years. And worst of all, the one friend she had had in childhood had come back and brutally barged her way into their lives, becoming the reason for all of this happening in the first place.

She had nothing to live for. She had lost her mother and father, and everyone else who was important to her. Her best friend had betrayed her, and crushed her hopes and dreams in the process. The Order had her surrounded, and they were likely not going to be merciful on her. She had nothing to return to, outside the borders of this town. Her own childhood friend had set all this into motion, causing every bit of destruction and murdering one of the two women she respected the most, in addition to the mother she loved so dearly. She had nothing to live for. Why should she resist? There was absolutely nothing waiting for her outside this town.

Alessa bent down and picked up the syringe lying by her feet. It was such a small thing, for having such a deadly effect on people and the environment around it. Alessa held out the syringe in front of her. She knew the severity of what she was contemplating, and the reality was that any of those closest to her would have smacked her for what she was contemplating. But none of them were here now, and the truth was most of them were dead, weren’t they? She was under no illusions that anyone outside of the town would care what happened to her.

She was sorry that she hadn’t gotten to kill Claudia and properly avenge her parents. She sorrowfully cast a glance down at the ground, staring at her boots, feeling the guilt settle into a burden heavy on her shoulders. _I’m sorry Mom, Dad_ , she told herself silently. That was the whole reason she had come to this town anyway. But the reality was that the odds were heavily against her, and the Order had a lot more members than she had the capability to defeat. She would probably die before she made it to Claudia. Maybe it was better this way. She was saddened that she hadn’t gotten to have her ultimate revenge on Claudia, but things just were what they were. If nothing else, she would certainly prevent the God from being born.

And then the thought occurred to her. Maybe this was even better. The Order would be robbed of what they so desperately desired, and Claudia would no longer see her dreams remain viable. Her life would continue on without a purpose this time, and she would be shattered. Alessa could still hold this upper hand over them, if she chose to seize it. If she died, the Order would be unable to do anything without her.

Yes, she could see it now. She had initially wanted to claim vengeance against the Order and properly avenge her loved ones’ deaths, but this was even better. The Order would be denied the satisfaction of seeing their plans completed, and she would be satisfied knowing that she had caused it with the least minimal effort on her part. She only wished she could be there to see the look on Claudia’s face, when she realized what her childhood friend had done.

Alessa lowered her grip on the needle. She measured the amount of liquid in the plastic. Sure enough, it was a fatal dosage. Alessa knew the God inside her healed her injuries and kept her alive persistently, but surely it couldn’t resist this, right? The transitions hadn’t happened very often in the past few hours, which meant that it was still weak. If she injected the full dose into her body, it would overwhelm her system and kill her before the parasitic god inside could react to the stimuli. And after all this time, and after all that she had suffered throughout her life, she would finally, finally die. It was an almost fool-proof plan.

The young woman took a deep breath. This was a serious step, and one she couldn’t afford to screw up. The thought weighed heavy on her mind for a moment. And that almost caused her to hesitate for a second. It was almost a shame. There were so many things left undone, so many things she wanted to do in her life. Go to school, find her soulmate, direct a movie; they were almost endless. But those no longer mattered now. The time for those regrets had passed. She had lived a reasonably full life for those six years, when she was free. She had no regrets.

And she was tired. So, so tired. Of dealing with the same conflict and having it come up over and over no matter what she did – it was never far from her mind. And it was one of the things that haunted her constantly, even in her happiest of times. Alessa could only take so much before she would break, no matter how tough she told herself she was, and how tough everyone told her she was. She had lived for herself, and loved during those years. Maybe it was time to go.

She felt along her arm until she found what she was looking for; it was relatively easy to find a vein. A small part of her felt a little bad for Lisa, who would now be left alone in the town with no one to help her, but she quickly dismissed the thought: the nurse had brought this fate upon herself, and Lisa would find some way to escape on her own, Alessa was sure of it. That left only the action itself to be done. _Good bye, best friend_ , she thought with a sneer, directing the ire at Claudia with disgust and hoping the woman could somehow feel it. And she directed a bit of that at Lisa too, she thought. She placed the needle against her arm above her forearm, making sure the needle was directly against her vein.

And then she pushed down the shaft.


	25. Hell in the Motel Room

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Disclaimer:** Silent Hill is owned by Konami, although they don't currently appreciate it. Then again, they don't appreciate any of their series, so Silent Hill is in good company in that regard! ;-)
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> **AN:** The scene in this chapter where Alessa has a horrible hallucination was inspired by a scene in a story where Lisa's flesh falls off, written in a very disjointed way. Unfortunately, I've since lost the name of the fic, or even where it's located. (Probably on Fanfiction.net.)
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> Note: I have no idea what a drug trip is actually like. But since White Claudia isn't an actual drug, I figure there is some leeway with the descriptions of the symptoms. I figured the drug interacted with the god inside Alessa, triggered Alessa's natural abilities, and the resulting effect is the mess of a hallucination that she goes through, this mishmash of different effects and experiences that she deals with, different from what an ordinary person like Lisa goes through when she uses the drug.

**Interlude - Hell in the Motel Room**

 

Lisa waited in the room back at the motel. What the hell was up with that? She was still mulling flabbergasted over what just happened with Alessa. Wasn’t she allowed to make a mistake? She didn’t see why Alessa had made it into such a big deal, and had such a bad reaction to it. Alessa had plenty of girlfriends herself obviously, so why did it matter if she had one lover that no one else approved of? Was it because it was Kaufmann? Lisa knew she had been taken in by Kaufmann, and she regretted it every day, to an extent, but that was her past and she wasn’t going to hide from it. Maybe if it had been someone else, Alessa wouldn’t have minded as much, but Lisa still thought it was uncalled for, and the girl had no right to treat her that way. She was angry, and frustrated, and she didn’t know what to do with herself at this point.

Being called that name, by one of the people she cared for the most…that hurt. Lisa wasn’t going to deny it. Her stomach was sent to the bottom of the floor at that point. So she had struck back, and did the same thing Alessa did to her. Lisa wasn’t proud of what she did, and she was sure Alessa probably had a set of good reasons for her behavior when she was younger, but she also thought it was called for. She had spent too much time not defending herself when someone abused her. She certainly wasn’t going to take it from someone who was supposed to be her friend.

The minutes passed like some kind of creeping, super lingering moment. Lisa wondered where Alessa was, and what she was doing. She was worried about the girl, she had to admit it. In her precarious emotional state, would Alessa be able to fight? What if she got injured, and there was no one there to help her? Lisa swallowed hard. It was lonely without Alessa. She hadn’t realized just how much she had gotten used to having human contact again in these past few hours, until it was taken away. A thought occurred to her. What if she did something she regretted? That was a more sobering possibility.

It would be just like the girl she had met for these few hours to charge into a situation she couldn’t win, just because she was upset.

That settled it. She decided to go after her. Not only was Alessa her only ticket out of here, but more importantly, she had to repair the damage she had done to her and Alessa’s relationship, and vice versa. Maybe if she explained her position, elaborated on the exact circumstances why she had made those choices, Alessa would understand and forgive her. And maybe then Lisa would get that apology, too. She deserved an apology, and she was going to get it.

She rose to her feet and started getting dressed. She could have just thought for a moment and appeared dressed, technically, but she supposed doing this made her feel human. She had no idea how clothes worked in this reality, and they were a part of her; it was rather unsettling to think about. Lisa settled her mouth into a grim line, as she thought of the upcoming task. Yes, that was what she was going to do; she was going to talk to Alessa and make her understand why she had made the choices she had made. She supposed she might have just told her to go to hell, but the truth was Alessa deserved a chance. She couldn’t have gone far, right? It was only a few minutes walk at most from the motel, since she hadn’t had time to get further than that. And Lisa could sense that she was somewhere nearby; she just didn’t know where. Lisa was going to follow her and make sure that Alessa didn’t do anything reckless in her upset state. After all, she was here, wasn’t she? Lisa reflected ruefully. There could be no greater sign of your recklessness than that.

Lisa walked slowly through the fog, swatting away some of the blanketing moisture. The mist was thick and obscured her vision of the streets, preventing her from seeing more than a few feet in front of and around her. Lisa knew this was no ordinary fog, and hidden inside it were horrors not imaginable to most people. Even her senses were failing her for the most part, not telling her anything about the area around her. She had to be careful. She had to cover her nose and mouth to prevent herself from breathing it in too deeply, even though she technically didn’t have lungs anymore. She felt like she was suffocating in the thick, almost gray fog covering the entirety of the street. She was beginning to sweat and had to tug uncomfortably at her shirt, even though she technically shouldn’t have been affected by the temperature whatsoever.

She walked for a few minutes through the streets. She wasn’t an expert, but as far as she was concerned, she was somewhere east of her original starting point. The fog had taken on an uncomfortable atmosphere. It was getting warmer, and Lisa didn’t know what could possibly be causing the environment to respond this way. It was baffling; what was the town reacting to? She kept her ears open for any noises in the fog, threatening sounds that indicated danger was near; there was nothing, but that didn’t mean anything. The creatures could easily be hidden in the fog, and creeping up to her silently.

She came across someone in the fog. At first she thought it was one of the random bodies lying throughout the town, since she couldn’t see very well through the fog, or a monster playing possum waiting for its next victim. Lisa approached it carefully, just in case her off-hand hunch turned out to be right. The person (?) was wearing dark clothing, and wasn’t moving. There was no blood pool lying under them or any signs of injuries or a fight, so it was impossible to tell what had happened. Lisa walked slowly amidst the mist, still wary of an attack from any sides. She got up close to the figure, only a few feet away. She was finally able to get a good look. And then her heart stopped, in a manner of speaking.

Alessa was lying unconscious in the middle of the road, her face slumped against the pavement. Her backpack was still on her back, and none of her weapons were out, but it was obvious something had happened to her. There was no blood anywhere on the ground, and no signs of any fight that occurred, but that did not mean things were okay. Her face was pale, and even from here Lisa could see the clammy sheen of sweat on her skin, layering her exposed body. She looked dead.

Lisa froze on the spot. “Oh my god,” she said with a gasp, feeling cold all over. She rushed over to the fallen body of the girl, kneeling down next to her to try and determine what had happened. She immediately felt for a pulse and was relieved to find one, it was faint but there. She looked much closer and saw that she was actually breathing erratically, the faint rise and fall of her chest barely visible under her clothing. Another one of her fears assuaged. She wouldn’t have to perform CPR in the middle of this mist filled, monster infested roadway. “Alessa, honey, wake up,” she told her, shaking her shoulder gently. “Wake up.” Lisa was thrown at a loss. What the hell had happened? She had been fine when they had been arguing back at the motel and now she was lying unconscious in the middle of the road! No monsters, no indications of a fight; there were no traces of a cultist either: what could possibly have happened to render her like this? There were no injuries visible on her person either, which was an apparent blessing. It meant nothing had attacked her while she was unconscious, or taken to gnawing on her in search for a meal. Lisa looked to the right and saw something that immediately explained what had happened to Alessa. There was a syringe lying on the ground, and in it was a thin whitish fluid coating the insides of the plastic container. It was White Claudia. Lisa drew in a sharp breath, as she stared at the object that had destroyed so much of her life, and defined her existence with a frozen sort of horror. There could be no doubt about exactly what had happened to the girl, and why she was lying unconscious on the ground, out in the middle of the open road.

Lisa raged indignantly. “No, no, no, no, no! What did you do?” Lisa shouted at the unconscious girl. She swiped her arms through the air, failing to give sufficient voice to her overwhelming frustration. “You bullheaded, stubborn, reckless, forcefully blind, rash, STUPID girl!” she cursed at the open air. What the hell was wrong with her? Lisa had known that Alessa admired her on a pedestal, but this was ridiculous. She wasn’t worth killing herself over! She felt again for Alessa’s pulse and was relieved to find it steady under her fingertips. Lisa tried to bend down and shuffle the unconscious girl to her feet, struggling to put an arm over her shoulder. “Come on honey, you have to get up,” she spoke to her gently, trying to urge her awake. She didn’t know whether Alessa could hear her or not, but it was better than nothing. And she knew Alessa was alive, at least. Maybe she might have some luck. She struggled to get the girl into place, Alessa’s body being much heavier than she remembered now that she was unconscious.

Lisa set Alessa’s form gently on the ground again. An overdosed patient, and no medical supplies or even activated charcoal anywhere. What the hell was she going to do? Lisa wondered how Alessa was even alive in the first place, if it was due to the thing that was supposedly inside her. She considered trying to heal her herself, but she had no idea how to even start, or whether she was even capable of that in the first place. She had to get Alessa back to the motel, she knew, away from the dangers that were out here; she supposed that was a place to start.

A stomp resonated through the ground. Lisa looked to the left, having been immediately alerted by the sound. There was nothing there, and Lisa wondered if it was one of the objects in the town falling to the ground. The place was crumbling, after all. Then another stomp sounded throughout the area, and Lisa realized this was no mere piece of siding falling onto the street. Something was coming, and it was growing closer in pitch. She looked through the fog, trying to determine what was making its way up the road. She wondered what could be coming. It didn’t look like a cultist, or any type of monster she’d ever seen. It was hard to ascertain the details, or any kind of hint. And then her heart plummeted all the way down to her stomach. She got a good view of the thing, and it was not good.

Two columns of flesh stomped on the asphalt, moving side by side, attached to a body that was twisted and stretched in a grotesque manner. It looked like one of the cult’s mythology figures, only backwards and flipped upside down. Burned brown skin covered the beast all over, stretched in grotesquely mottled ways. Lisa looked closely and realized that the monster actually had four legs, moving one after the other as it stomped along on the ground. And it was big. The creature was absolutely massive, making cars look tiny as it made its way through the mist covered street. The stomps echoed through the ground, and the ground seemed to be shaking from the heavy stomping of the creature. Its faceless head stared ahead with a dead stare, completely uncaring of anything it was trampling in its way. Lisa didn’t even realize a creature could manifest to that extent in this town.

Lisa felt a panic begin to rise. She couldn’t fight this. No one could fight this. She began to shake Alessa urgently, trying to wake her up. That thing was absolutely massive and she had no idea how to bring it down. They had to get out of here. She bent down to try to lift Alessa from the ground. “Alessa, you have to get up.” Alessa made a sort of committal noise. Lisa didn’t know whether she was conscious, or whether she was hallucinating, but they couldn’t afford to wait until Alessa regained her full senses. She swung an arm of Alessa’s around her shoulders, and then lifted her from the ground full body style. It was a little difficult to perform, Alessa was heavier than she looked. Lisa strained under the weight with a grunt, but held Alessa’s entire body upright. Now that Alessa was on her feet, they began to move. The creature was still stomping behind them, making its way closer to them with each step, sending small vibrations through the ground in a rumbling quake.

They moved one painful step at a time, Lisa almost fully supporting Alessa’s body weight against her. Alessa was murmuring incoherently, and though she seemed to be somewhat conscious now, Lisa knew she wasn’t going to be of any help. Lisa half walked, half dragged Alessa across the road over the long distance they needed to cover to get back to the motel. The monster was gaining on them, quickly closing the distance between them with its four legs and tenacious pursuit of anything in its path. She was lucky that they hadn’t encountered any monsters on their way back to slow them down, Lisa knew, because she wouldn’t have been able to fight something like that. There was no way she could support Alessa’s weight and wield a gun at the same time, even if she had the skill to fire at something out in the open, with zero visibility thanks to the fog, rather than up close.

The creature quickened its pace, apparently having sensed prey and trying everything it can to catch up to them. Lisa hurried to rush them across the town to the safety of the motel, dragging Alessa with her as much as she could without hurting her. They were halfway to the motel, and Lisa could almost see the familiar comforting structure within her grasp. Lisa looked back and caught a glimpse of the creature’s faceless face, and it somehow looked viciously ravenous despite the lack of recognizable facial features. She had to hurry. Lisa knew the creature was going to do something, and her suspicions were proven correct when the creature used its hind legs and propelled itself forward, flying several feet over the pavement and landing on the ground with a huge rumble. The creature shook the area, sending massive reverberations through the ground. Lisa screamed in response to the impact, momentarily collapsing halfway to the ground with her charge. Somehow she managed to keep her grip on Alessa. Lisa looked back and saw blades emerging from under the legs of the creature, each one easily the length of one of her legs. That was it. They had to get out of here. She managed to lift Alessa back up to her feet somehow, and they proceeded back on their rush to the only sanctuary in this region of the town. The monster quickly pursued them, moving quicker than Lisa thought it had any right to in its relentless pursuit of its prey.

“Come on, Alessa, you can do it,” Lisa urged her on, practically hobbling together under the arch that marked the entrance to the motel parking lot. They could see the motel building now, only a short distance away. It was so close, it urged her to keep going faster to the safety of the room. She looked back to see if the creature was still following them, and sure enough, it was. Lisa was under no illusions that the arch would stop the creature from progressing forward – it would just walk right under it. The stomps of the monster’s limbs on the ground sounded like some iron statue stepping on the pavement with enormous burden – Lisa was surprised they weren’t leaving indentations in the asphalt, breaking apart the road. She hurried Alessa into the vicinity of the motel room as fast as she could, calling on any bit of energy she had left to hasten the process. Her legs were getting tired, which was a revelation for Lisa, since she was dead and shouldn’t have been affected by such things. Was she somehow being affected by her proximity to the girl next to her? Those cylinder-like limbs gave pursuit, urging her to go faster and pour everything she had into escaping this relentless pursuer. The blonde nurse’s eyes lit up as they closed in on their goal only a few feet away. It was just within their grasp! Three steps away. Two. One. The doorknob was just a few inches under her hand.

Lisa burst into the room and threw the door shut behind her. She turned toward the bed and headed to settle Alessa on it, letting her drop across the mattress. She went back to the entrance, to see if they were in the clear. Lisa locked the door with a sharp turn of her wrist, though she knew that wasn’t going to make any difference. She stared at the door with her heart beating wildly, wondering if the creature was still out there. She could hear the moving sounds of the creature pacing relentlessly outside the motel room. It wasn’t going to go easily then. Lisa knew the creature couldn’t get into the motel room because of its size. It was too big to fit through the doorway, and even if it broke down the window and shattered the wall to the motel room, it would still probably wind up stuck halfway into the room. However, its body was massive and it could still reach a formidable long way, and Lisa had no idea how far the reach was of those blades; she could easily find herself trapped in the room in a very small space, with nowhere to go. She waited with baited breath for several tension filled moments. Finally, the sounds of the monster departing with its huge limbs were heard through the door. Lisa let out the breath she’d been holding, deflating with relief. Thank God that had gone away, or whatever power ran this insane place. For a moment she thought she was going to have to do something drastic, like shift Alessa into the Otherworld. And that wouldn’t have gone well at all. Not in her current state. She didn’t think she would ever be thanking the Order’s God for anything, but there was a time for everything, it seemed. Lisa turned towards the sick girl on the bed.

Now all she had to do was deal with the overdose patient on a very bad trip.

 

~

 

Alessa didn’t know where she was at first. She thought she was in the motel room, but that didn’t make sense. The world was hazy around her. It felt like she couldn’t focus on anything around her. She felt every kind of ill. She thought she heard Lisa’s voice, but Lisa had left her behind after she had snapped at her. Her heart was beating frantically in her chest, and she felt sweaty all over. She should have been dead. She remembered something to that effect. Why was she still alive? The shadows in the room began to encircle her, covering the majority of the chamber in her view.

To her horror, she saw them floating high above the bed. They were monsters of shadow and rage, leering at her with a savage expression. Alessa instinctively backed away. 

“Get them away from me,” she said, scrambling to hide herself. She thought she saw someone approach her – Lisa, wasn’t it? She couldn’t tell anymore. “Lisa” stared at her with bewilderment.

“Alessa, what’s wrong?” she tried to get closer to the girl. Alessa’s eyes grew wide with panic. 

“I said get them away!” she screamed. The monsters were reaching for her, intent on dragging her to their hell for her transgressions. They would tear the flesh from her limbs, make her feel pain like the one she felt before, in that lonely, monstrous sick room. She curled into a fetal position in the corner of the bed, hiding from those grotesque faces who leered at her with razor sharp teeth.

“Alessa, they’re not real,” Lisa said, finally having caught on to what was going on. But her voice gradually faded into the background, as if it were coming from far away in the room.

The room darkened around her. The shadow monsters disappeared, going just as suddenly as they came. Alessa looked around at her surroundings. It looked just like the Otherworld, with its nightmarish change and rusted walls. Alessa thought the White Claudia was supposed to drive away the hallucinations, not bring them! She found herself in a nightmarish situation at this point, not knowing what was going on. She felt hot and cold at the same time, sweating and chilled simultaneously like she couldn’t stop shivering. The walls were pulsing. She didn’t know what was going on. Her flesh was falling off her limbs, revealing charred burnt flesh underneath sticky with blood. She tried to pick it up, but it wouldn’t stick to her arms, sliding off her body and leaving pools of blood in its wake. She was growing desperate, trying frantically to attach her flesh to her body, but it would not be healed no matter what. She would not be made whole.

She couldn’t let Lisa see her like this. What would she think? She definitely wouldn’t want her then. So she tried her best to put herself back together again, but it wasn’t working. The walls pulsed and shrieked in response, as if reacting to her mental state and agony. Her powers were gone; it felt like a part of her was missing, like a piece had been carved out of her mind. She hadn’t realized how much she had missed them until now. She hadn’t realized how much she had needed them until now.

The walls were melting into darkness and decay. It was like reality itself was collapsing, being peeled off and sliding into a gooey mess of black sludge pooling together on the floor. The floor below her had turned to chain-link, filled with rust and blood stains splattered all over the place. There was a bottomless, black void beneath her feet. She felt like if she walked above the fence and a part collapsed beneath her feet, she would fall into a void from which she would never escape.

 

~

 

Lisa watched from her chair in the corner of the motel room, as Alessa went through the painful ordeal she was experiencing. She wanted to take the girl’s hand, but she didn’t dare touch Alessa, fearing what would happen if Alessa reacted to her with her subconscious abilities in this state.

Alessa writhed on the bed, clawed and grasped at unseen images, rocked herself on the bed at alternate moments, and talking to herself about things that only she understood. Lisa felt the heat rise in the room, her heart pounding quickly in her chest, as though the atmosphere itself was reacting to whatever Alessa was going through. She had never seen a trip this bad. Lisa waited patiently for the episode to end, hands folded in her lap, as Alessa went through the stages of the overdose.

There was nothing she could do to help her. All she could do was wait.

 

~

 

There was a hallway lying before her, with the walls rusted and bloody like the rest of the Otherworld. Alessa followed the hallway and walked further into the nightmare. It was like she had gone all the way back to the halls in Alchemilla, and the decay and suffering she had found therein. She heard a voice calling her, from far away it seemed. Was that Lisa? It seemed that she was far away, but she didn’t think that she was here, in the first place. Was she trying to rescue her? That was a novel thought. She didn’t deserve it.

There was a large figure in the distance. It was surrounded by white fog, and silhouetted in the wide expansive hallway of the hospital. The outline of a triangular helmet was visible in the distance. Alessa drew in a sharp breath as she felt her chest tighten. It was him. She had killed him back at the manor house. What was he doing here?! Alessa felt her heart quicken as she approached the awaiting sight. She tried to stop herself from walking forward, but it was like she was no longer in control of her own body anymore. She didn’t want to fight this creature again, not after what happened before, and in the condition she was in. Suddenly, whatever power was inside her began drawing the drug out of her system, counteracting the powerful effects quickly before she knew what hit her. It was like her head was being cleared out, and her metabolism was burning through the drug faster than it could harm her body. To Alessa’s amazement, she watched as a white light enveloped the creature with its arms spread aloft in rage, as it lost its last chance to attack her for her “crimes”.

She felt healed now, and her head was lighter than at any point in the past drug fueled hours. Alessa walked forward into whatever awaited her in the hallway, now having a peaceful feeling despite its still hellish appearance. She could breathe again, she felt great, and that was saying something considering what she had just been through. The light enveloped her completely, feeling like a peaceful light of heaven emanating from somewhere beyond the town, purifying and cleansing in its brightness.

Alessa walked into the light, and suddenly she regained consciousness. The world was blurry around her, and she had difficulty making out the details of where she was, and who was there with her. But the horror from earlier was gone, with no blood tainted walls, bottomless voids, or demonic manifestations.

And then she was in the motel.


	26. Realizations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: So, Konami is dead in the console business, with only one soccer game remaining. :P I make no money off this fic. They still own Silent Hill. I fully expect to see a pachinko machine with the theme one of these days. Hopefully, Lisa will do a sexy dance for us, to make up for the disappointment. >_>
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> **AN:** So, this is the last of the 'melodrama' chapters, as I like to think of them. ;-D I promise, we are going to get back to some crazy s*it in the next chapter! :-D We are going to see monsters, and new locations; just a bunch of stuff that you aren't expecting! So, just hold on for one more chapter, while Alessa works out some of her issues with Lisa. ;-) *Grins patiently*
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> There is also going to be a cameo from a character from another fandom, in the next few chapters. ;-) I won't say who it is, but the fandom should already be familiar to anyone who has read the previous works.
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> The scenario presented in this chapter stems from conversations with someone I once knew, about something Masahiro Ito had said. :-/ She was very insistent about the subject, and it actually caused some heated discussions between us. :-/ Although we no longer communicate, I'm deferring to her judgment on this one, because it makes the story of Lisa's situation that much more tragic.
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> So, here we go.

**Chapter 22: Realizations**

 

Alessa awoke gradually to the world, blearily blinking her eyes and trying to clear out the fog. Contrary to her previous dream state, she felt tired now, weary all over her body like a truck had metaphorically run her over. That peaceful state might have felt nice at that moment, but it didn’t last, and certainly wasn’t easy to recapture. She looked around at the details around her and saw that she was in the motel, with its dusty surroundings and dreary décor. So she had never left the general vicinity of the motel, or gone that far. And someone had dragged her back there, it seemed. She didn’t quite remember what had happened. Her brain was still a little foggy. Whether that was from the circumstances she put herself in, or from the hellish nightmare trip she found herself on afterward, she couldn’t say.

“Welcome back.”

Alessa awoke to see Lisa Garland, staring at her from across the bed with concern. She wore a light smile, but one that did not reach her concerned eyes.

“Lisa?” Alessa asked groggily, blearily clearing away the haziness in her vision. Lisa was sitting close to her, looming over her with an apparently concerned expression that knotted her beautiful blonde eyebrows.

“You were out for a long time. How do you feel?” Lisa asked her kindly.

Alessa pushed herself up, wincing as she felt a pain in her side. How long had she been lying there on that pavement, with her face against the hard asphalt? “Okay, I guess. A little scrambled.” Lisa didn’t respond, which immediately caused the girl to put up her guard.

The nurse stared at her with an intense, almost unreadable expression. Alessa shifted uncomfortably under her piercing gaze, as Lisa inched closer to her. They were silent for several moments. Alessa wondered if Lisa felt mad at her, or if she was expecting something else to happen.

Suddenly, the nurse swept her up in her arms and held her tightly. “Don’t you ever do that to me again!” Lisa told her harshly, staring at her with an expression that was somewhere between panic and enraged pleading. Alessa was surprised Lisa cared so much. She would have figured the nurse would have considered her lower than dirt, after what she had said to her. Suddenly, she felt embarrassed more than anything else she’d experienced. She had put her through all that, and she could see the panic in the nurse’s eyes.

What the hell was wrong with her? Why had she done something so foolish, without even thinking about it once?

“Why did you do that?” Lisa asked her demandingly, holding her tightly by the shoulders. “I thought you’d died!” She still could remember the moment of terror when she saw Alessa lying there, the full blown panic when she saw how lifeless the girl felt, and looked in her pale, sweaty demeanor. “If anything had happened to you…” she trailed off, really not wanting to complete the sentence. If Alessa had died…she didn’t know what she would have done.

Alessa closed her eyes. She frowned. “I…I don’t know,” Alessa admitted, letting out a deep breath that came like a sigh. She considered the answer carefully, thinking of those last few moments before she took the drug. Why had she done that? It was strongly uncharacteristic of her, to do something so rash without thinking about it. And yet, when she thought of Lisa and Kaufmann together…the result was just a ball of despair and confusion. And now, she felt a world full of guilt about what she had done. She had put Lisa through all that, and what was obviously a very traumatic experience for the nurse, not even thinking about what would happen if she found her like that. Or, hell, if anybody found her like that. She deserved an answer. “I, I saw you and Kaufmann together, and when I realized that you weren’t the person I thought you were, that my ideals about you were all wrong…” she tried to answer. It sounded lame, even to her ears. It was pathetic, really. But it was all she had…

Lisa drew her attention with a cool, sharp gaze. “So you thought I was a perfect angel, and once you found out that I wasn’t you were disappointed?” she questioned sharply.

Alessa didn’t answer. She stared straight down at the mattress, feeling horrible. “I’m sorry…” she finally got out.

Lisa’s gaze softened. “I’m not perfect, Alessa. I’m a human being, with flaws like everyone else. I’ve done things I regret, and I’m sure the same goes for you as well,” she remarked, putting just a touch of hardness in her voice. She could understand the younger girl’s position, but Alessa needed to be reminded of that, and Alessa needed to be reminded that she was also a human being. “That doesn’t mean you have the right to disrespect me like that. I am a human being, too, and I deserve your respect. I have feelings, too, and I’ve spent my life taking abuse from other people when I disagreed with their motives, and I certainly don’t need to take it from you, from someone who I thought was a friend,” she finished.

Alessa shut her eyes tightly. “I’m sorry. I know what I did was horrible! You’re not perfect, and I have no right to expect that of you,” she said, her voice cracking with every word, pleading with the nurse to have some compassion. She felt a horrible sense of shame now, looking back at her actions. Why had she expected Lisa to be perfect like that? And to strike out at her like she did, because of that, was horribly misplaced, not to mention completely disrespectful to the nurse after what she had done for her. So what if she had made a mistake, or two? Lisa was only human, and why did Alessa expect her to be anything but? Sleeping with a terrible man wasn’t exactly the end of the world, and it was a relatively minor thing in comparison to what she could have done to her. Thinking back on it, Alessa realized now that there was a chance that Lisa never cared for her at all, and was simply doing her job, but that was no reason to harm her. Because the truth was…Alessa wasn’t perfect. She had done several things she regretted, and one in particular stood out in her mind. “Because…I’m not perfect. I’ve done things I regretted, and I still have to make up for. I had no right to take out my frustrations on you,” she said, hoping that was enough to calm the nurse a little bit. It didn’t look like Lisa was particularly angry now, but she could still tell that there was some resentment there, and with good reason.

Oh yes, she had done things she regretted, and which she had never made up for. There were several in particular that came to mind, but one among them stood out alone in her mind. And now that they were in the town again, it was rising back to the surface.

“What do you mean?” Lisa asked curiously. She knew of course that Alessa had flaws like everyone else, but this sounded oddly specific. She wondered what the girl was getting at. “What did you do?” she queried.

Alessa closed her eyes. It was such a long time ago, but she still remembered clearly. “When I first woke up…Kaufmann, they tried to hold me down again. They didn’t want me to be anywhere near active again,” Alessa sneered, recalling the faces of those doctors on that day, and the fear she felt in their hearts. “Kaufmann called for other nurses and doctors for backup. They were trying to restrain me, and inject me with more drugs so I would go back to sleep again. They weren’t involved with the Order, they were just ordinary doctors and nurses doing their jobs, but I didn’t know that, and I saw them as a threat. I was scared and frantic to escape, and they were trying to surround me.” Alessa looked up and squeezed her eyes shut, feeling the moisture drip from her eyes. “I killed them. Every last one of them. I transformed the environment around them with my abilities, and I dragged them all to their deaths.”

Alessa stared squarely at Lisa. “I killed them. They had nothing to do with the Order whatsoever, and I killed them. There were about 18 or 20 of them,” Alessa’s voice cracked on the final words. The memories were coming back, bringing back all the trauma from those few years, and those final moments where she lashed out and broke free.

The hospital was in an emergency mode. Kaufmann had called all the available nurses and doctors, to help with the “problem” he was dealing with. Without Lisa there to keep her company, and comfort her with her sweet singing voice, Alessa had lost it. The nurses and doctors had been shocked at her condition, although they assumed she was just an ordinary patient Kaufmann had concealed from them for a while because of her appearance; they didn’t know the full, horror filled backstory behind her story. At least those not in the know.

The people around her were in chaos as they wheeled her into an emergency room in an attempt to stabilize her, and put her under again. They were taking orders from Kaufmann, not knowing why they were doing so. Alessa was frightened and knew she had to take the upper hand before they subdued her again. Alessa had gotten one of her hands free. She hadn’t been tied up securely enough. Alessa had touched the wall, and the Otherworld had come. Half of them were attacked by the parasites Alessa had summoned, and strung up like puppets for her to use, and the other half were dragged to their deaths by the monsters that had come from the shadows. Only about three of them were employed with the Order, but that didn’t matter. Alessa had killed and slaughtered them like they were nothing. Afterward, she had freed herself and headed off to await Harry. She never once looked back, never thought about the people she had killed.

Not until after she had left Silent Hill.

“I’m a monster,” Alessa stated softly. She squeezed her eyes shut, struggling to hold back the moisture from slipping past her cheeks. So much death, so many dead people surrounding her, and it still continued. She was responsible for that. It all stemmed from her. She couldn’t deny it. She was as responsible for that as the doctors and cultists who had manipulated them into those positions in the first place. She may have killed them inadvertently, desperately trying to defend herself, but in the end, she had still killed them.

“I’ve never told anyone else this,” Alessa whispered, struggling to hold back the images. “I can’t tell anyone about my past. That’s why my relationships never work out. They wouldn’t believe me. And even if they did, what could they do about it? How can I ever get any psychological help in the form of therapy if I can’t even tell anyone the reason for my problems in the first place?” she asked.

Alessa stared straight at Lisa, making sure she had her complete attention. “You asked me why I rushed to sleep with you, why I was with all those girls, why I am so focused on sex, and physical stimulation instead of taking things slowly. It’s all I have, Lisa,” Alessa admitted, her voice cracking on those last few words. “The only way I can connect with someone, if I’m not already close to them…”

Lisa stared at the brunette girl across from her with a mixture of understanding and pity, trying not to show it too obviously on her face.

“You’re not a monster,” she said, cupping the side of Alessa’s face and forcing her chin up, forcing her to meet her eyes. “You made a mistake, and people got hurt because of it. But that doesn’t mean that’s all there is to you. There was nothing else you could have done, and you had to get out of it. There’s more to you than just a mistake that claimed several lives, and everyone who knows you knows that,” Lisa remarked, reassuring the girl of what she already knew. Yes, it was a grave mistake, but Lisa could understand why she did it; the girl was confused and desperate. She didn’t exactly have much choice, did she? Lisa wasn’t going to condemn her for that. And Alessa deserved better, than to torment herself over something years ago that she had no control over.

Alessa kept her head down, unwilling to look Lisa in the eye with all the shame. Yeah, she understood what Lisa was getting at. One mistake in your life, or even a series of mistakes, didn’t define your entire life, and she had no right to persecute Lisa for hers, even if they did involve a certain doctor. She understood that all too well, but God, the shame she felt at doing so was overwhelming. She was still struggling to hold back the moisture from sliding down her cheeks, and she felt like there was a weight on the back of her neck, keeping her head down from meeting Lisa’s eyes. She couldn’t believe she had done that to Lisa. This was her angel, her idol, her guardian – and she had treated her like dirt. Only that was the problem, wasn’t it – Lisa was her angel, was her idol, was her guardian, and yet she was just a person, who was actually none of those things. She wasn’t perfect, she had flaws, and the façade that Alessa had spent the past eight years worshiping was just an illusion, and it was one that was entirely self-inflicted. It was definitely a bitter pill to swallow.

“I’m not perfect, Alessa. I have flaws just like everyone else, and I’ve done a lot of things I regret. If you’re looking for some picture perfect angel that you can worship as a goddess, you’re not going to find that with me. I’m as human as they come,” Lisa said, with a bit of a self-deprecating expression. “I can’t be that perfect image that you want me to be, it’s too much for me,” she said shaking her head, she wasn’t that strong. “But I can be a friend if you need one. You don’t have to do this alone. You don’t have to go through this alone. Anybody would need some support, in a case like this. I can help you, if you let me,” she finished, holding out her hand gently, demurely towards Alessa. It wasn’t a gesture of partnership, or any symbol of strength. Rather, it was an invitation – an open one to accept her help if she wanted it, in whatever way she could offer it.

Alessa nodded, still keeping her head down. She understood what Lisa was saying. And she appreciated it, to know that Lisa was still willing to accept her. It humbled her, to know that despite the grand way she had passed judgment on her, Lisa was still willing to support her, and give her whatever help she could offer. She was giving her a second chance, in a way Alessa herself wasn’t sure she would have done only a few hours ago. It was a very humbling experience, and it made her feel very small inside, to know how much more accepting this woman was than her. She deserved better, greater than anything Alessa could offer her.

“Come here,” Lisa told her, with just a bit of firm gentleness in her voice. She opened her arms just the slightest bit, inviting her into a hold that she knew Alessa needed. She knew Alessa desperately needed some comforting right now. Lisa could do that for her. Even if she knew Alessa had said some terrible things about her earlier, Lisa would forgive her. It was what she did. And Alessa needed assurances that she was not a monster, that she was still human; that she still had worth to someone, and _someone_ still wanted her. Lisa could do that for her as well. She had no one else. The girl needed her.

Alessa allowed herself to rush into her open embrace, leaning her head against Lisa’s chest. She was shaking silently over her body, crying softly against the nurse’s uniform as she finally gave in to the torrent she had been holding back for the past 25 minutes. Lisa encircled her arms around the fragile girl, holding her tight without being too forceful. She leaned into the hold, appreciating Lisa’s comforting embrace and her attempt to provide her some security and emotional support. Alessa wiped her face and cleared her eyes, as the realization washed over her with dawning acceptance. She wasn’t as alone as she thought, back a few hours ago when she injected that drug. She had a friend to support her and rely on, and someone who would stick by her despite all her flaws. She didn’t know how she got so lucky, despite her earlier behavior, but Lisa was here, and she wasn’t going to pass that up. It was a second chance, and it was one Alessa was going to take.

She had someone who would fight for her and give her strength. Someone she could defend and care for, but also someone who could protect her if necessary and look over her to the best of her abilities. She pulled back a bit in clarity, realizing just how things had changed in the way she saw her world in the past few moments, simply on account of a few words with the woman sitting across from her. She had someone to depend on, and for some reason, fate had deemed it fit to be the same person who had helped her years before. But things were also different this time around, and it showed. She had a new perspective on the woman sitting across from her, a more mature perspective really, and she was going to make a place for her if the other woman wanted it.

Not as a perfect person to worship, but as the woman who had been there for her when she needed her the most.

 

~

 

They spent a while talking about different things, from things Lisa had seen in the town, to Alessa’s life and some of the things she’d been through. Nothing major, simply sharing facts about themselves. Contrary to what was said earlier, Lisa was pleasantly surprised Alessa’s life wasn’t all just thinking about the past and mindless physical stimulation; she had done other things, and regularly enjoyed her life for the most part. In turn, Alessa was surprised that Lisa had held out for as long as she had, in what was truly an insane environment. Nothing earth shattering, simply quiet conversation. Alessa was under no illusions of time, she knew they had a time limit, but she could also afford to take a moment and build up a connection to hold her up; Claudia wasn’t going anywhere. It wasn’t until Lisa mentioned something that was a little odd, that Alessa noticed something was off about the description that Lisa was giving her. There was something off about the whole situation here, and it was not the fact that Lisa was dead – she had long ago gotten used to that little factoid, upsetting as it was. Hell, she had killed (or helped kill) a man from another dimension, who put people’s minds in orbs and used them as sentinels – ghosts were nothing new or extraordinary, for her. No, there was something odd going on here, and Alessa was determined to find out whatever it was, no matter what it took.

Lisa had talked at length about how things were in the town, and some of the things she had witnessed. She had an incredible awareness of the environment around her, and understood how the town functioned on a physical level. For some reason, death had not diminished her senses in any way, and in fact she now had a greater awareness of the things around her than she had in life. She had seen people come and go throughout the years, never realizing she was watching them except for a few chance encounters, and she always remained aware of them along with everything happening around her, except on a few odd occasions. “Sometimes I black out, and I completely lose track of everything around me. I don’t know why it happens, or where I go during that time, but I never feel any different afterwards,” Lisa said softly. It was the oddest thing, she would have thought that being dead she would be awake at all times. And she had periods where she could sleep, if she so desired it. But this was different. This was sudden, and unexpected. It only happened a few times, every month or so on schedule, but she really didn’t feel any different afterwards. It frightened her, but Lisa had given up some time ago trying to find any answers for it. It was just one more thing in the town that she didn’t understand, Lisa figured casually, and one that she would never understand.

“What do you mean you black out?” Alessa questioned. There was something off here, and it was leaving her with a feeling that was very uneasy, and left her cold. Lisa shouldn’t be blacking out, she was a spirit! What was she missing here, that she wasn’t seeing? There was something there at the back of her mind, and it was nagging at her brain, but she didn’t realize what it was. She had to ask Lisa more questions. She needed more information.

“I just lose all consciousness, just like that,” Lisa said to her. She couldn’t think of another way to explain it than that.

“How long does it last?” Alessa asked.

“A good while. Um, I don’t exactly know the full time frame,” Lisa said uncertainly. It’s not like there were any watches or anything in Silent Hill.

“Do you always wake up in the same place where you left, or do you go somewhere else?” Alessa pressed on, determined to discover the truth.

“I almost always wake up in the same place where I left. Sometimes I wake up in a different place and I can’t explain how I got there. It frightened me at first, but I usually just go back to roaming the town,” Lisa said, wrinkling her forehead in thought. She tried to remember some details about what happened during those times, but nothing came to mind.

Alessa frowned in response, trying to put the pieces together. Lisa sometimes blacked out, which made no sense because she was dead and shouldn’t have been susceptible to those sensations in the first place. She didn’t know where she went or what happened during those times, but she knew they happened regularly. It was a mystery to her, but it was one she’d learned to accept. However, Alessa wasn’t going to be deterred so easily.

Whoever was doing this usually deposited her back in the same place where she started, except on occasions when they might have just forgot, because they didn’t want her to suspect a thing. They wanted Lisa to believe that this was just a normal aspect, but Alessa knew it wasn’t. There was something wrong here, Alessa could feel it in her bones with every thought she took. And she was suspicious of one particular area in the town, the hospital, to where Lisa kept being drawn to – the place where it all started.

She remembered passing a nurse behind a ladder; Valtiel looming over her, toying with the bound woman below and leering at it menacingly, the valves along the wall pumping in tandem. The nurse was strung up like a puppet; its hair was black, and cut short, but flowing in its texture. The nurse was wearing green shoes; a painfully familiar shade of green shoes. Her arms were covered in gloves, and she was wearing sleazy leather clothing, and she was in a position the woman currently sitting beside her would never be, but it was obvious she had been forced into that position. Her posture was one of suffering, and the way in which she was strung up only highlighted that undercurrent; her face was one of passive acceptance, like she had long ago fallen into a catatonic state from the misery being inflicted on her. The green was the color of a certain pair of earrings…

_Oh no._ Alessa felt a sickening feeling taking hold in her stomach. She had hoped that that was not the case. Even as the idea was taking hold in her mind, she had hoped that was not the case, because oh Lord, that was all kinds of horrible. But then again, the Order was all about rebirth. She only had to ask one single question to Lisa, to confirm everything. No, it wasn’t something that she wanted to hear, but she needed to know exactly what was going on here.

“Lisa, how long have you been here?” Alessa asked carefully, keeping her voice as level as possible. She was needing to hear that final step in her answers, but at the same time, there was also a tide of emotion rising in her, and she was trying to hold it back. It wasn’t working.

The nurse considered it. “Since right after you left,” Lisa said, after she thought about it for a while.

That did it. Alessa shot right up to her feet, feeling a rage flowing through her veins unlike everything else. She gripped her fingers tightly and unclenched them, trying to settle down from the furious emotional storm and failing miserably. She was outraged and she was angry, and she was feeling like punching somebody – preferably the demons who called this place their home. How could they do this to her? She had thought she had seen the worst of the worst, on her journey thus far, and no, the town kept surprising her in a bad way.

“What’s wrong? I know it’s upsetting, but…” Lisa started, concerned about the sudden change in Alessa’s demeanor. It came out of nowhere, it was frightening, and she couldn’t explain it. One minute they were talking, the next she had exploded; quite harshly. Lisa didn’t know why.

“Six years? They’ve kept you here for SIX YEARS, Lisa! Tormenting you, torturing you…” Alessa cut her off, too overwhelmed with the furious indignation of the situation to let her get a word in edge-wise. She was too furious and outraged to do otherwise. She had thought that Lisa had manifested in the town later on after her escape, or been called back to the town because of her presence here, or in anticipation of it. The thought made her feel ill. All the while, while she was taking her first steps into a new life, Lisa was here suffering and being tortured. While she was enjoying her life, Lisa was stuck here being tormented and taunted in a miserable existence.

“They’re changing you…” Alessa said desperately. Into what, she didn’t know, but it was obvious that that was what was going on here, and they were doing something to Lisa while she blacked out. But she shouldn’t have been surprised. The Order was all about rebirth, and transforming into something else. Why should its Gods be any different? She snarled to herself mentally as she considered a particularly vicious thought. The next time she saw that monster hanging up in the rafters, she was going to shoot it with all the bullets she could possibly spare.

She had only just gotten Lisa back, and was getting to know her. The thought that she might be taken away from her, _transformed_ into something different and unrecognizable by that being, struck a vicious fear into her mentality. She wouldn’t allow it. She wasn’t going to allow it to happen. The terror that Lisa might be transformed into one of those constructs, or “manifestations” that roamed the town, and she would be lost forever, was something that she didn’t even want to contemplate. It was unacceptable. No way would she allow it to happen.

“What do you mean?” Lisa asked, puzzled. Alessa looked at her with pity, and compassion. She didn’t understand what they were doing to her. She didn’t understand that they were changing her, into something deranged and grotesque; tearing away at her actual spirit. And those things walking out there, changing into whatever forms they assumed…there was no way back for them. Alessa knew those monsters out there weren’t just illusions, they were the actual spirits of the town, who had been here a long time whatever they once were. Whether the actual Order members of the town, or victims of the town who had died there, Alessa knew it didn’t matter now. There was no way back for them. They would never again be what they once were, and nothing she could do would change that. The human spirit was very resilient and had many things it could bounce back from, but Alessa knew it had limits to some of the things it could come back from. With every time that Lisa stepped into that nightmare, went into that trance, they were chipping away a piece of her soul, reforming her, molding her like a brick of clay into something…'other', something hideous. Eventually, the day would come when she would be completely transformed into something completely different, and non-human. She would no longer remember who or what she was. Alessa wasn’t going to allow that to happen. That wasn’t an option. She would rather kill herself and take this whole town with her, before she allowed it to happen. She would do whatever she could to prevent Lisa from suffering that fate, spare her from that unending horror, no matter what it took.

“I will get you out of here, Lisa,” Alessa promised, as she cupped her face in her hands and regarded her delicate features. That was a promise. She had come here seeking revenge, but now she had found something more important to fight for. She had a reason to live now. She absolutely could not die here, because if she did, Lisa would be trapped in here for eternity. That was nothing that someone like Lisa should be subjected to. She had started this, by not checking on things after she escaped from the town, and now she would have to fix it. So she had to stay alive. There was no choice in the matter. There was absolutely no way that she was going to leave Lisa here. She had direction now; a tangible, concrete goal to strive for. Besides getting revenge, that is. She had no idea how she was even going to do that yet, but it didn’t matter; somehow she would manage. The Order wouldn’t stop her. She had a purpose now, and she wasn’t going to let anything get in the way of her drive to fulfill it. She was going to find some way to get Lisa out of here, no matter what it took, and help this woman who had helped her when she needed it the most.

“Um, okay,” Lisa said uncertainly. She was still looking a little confused, but she settled into Alessa’s embrace. Alessa smiled fondly at her kind blonde nurse. She still didn’t understand what was going on, but that didn’t matter. Alessa was looking out for her now, and she was going to protect her from any of the threats the town could throw at her, even if those threats were ones that she had inadvertently created herself. She had much to make up for to Lisa, and she would start with this simple promise. She owed it to Lisa, to get her out of here so that she could live a full decent life, or barring that – if that proved impossible, so that she could at least rest in peace. She took Lisa into her arms and held her head against her chest, and Lisa didn’t protest even if she didn’t understand why Alessa was so emotional all of a sudden, for which she was glad. Lisa had spent much of the past few hours comforting Alessa; Alessa now finally had a chance to comfort her, even if she didn’t know she needed it. She wasn’t going to waste it. It was nice to be needed; even more so by someone who had done so much for her, for whom she could do some good for. She was going to protect this woman with everything she had, until she had nothing left. This town had taken so much from her, taken so many people away from her. She was done letting it take things from her, no doubt about it. They were not going to take this away from her, no matter what was thrown at her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _AN: Although we're not really sure what they are, I thought it would be interesting if the doctors and nurses full of parasites were people Alessa had killed, not just manifestations representing the staff. It makes Alessa's story more horrific, and yet she's still a victim because she really didn't know what she was doing._


	27. Into the Darkness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Disclaimer: Silent Hill still belongs to Konami, although the company is all but dead in terms of video games. ~~Metal Gear: Survive does not count! :-P~~**
> 
>  
> 
> AN: Again, a mix of new and old writing. The next chapter will take a little while. The next chapter is mostly written, but I had to wait to see whether a planned cameo I had would still be valid, after the final entry of another series. Now that I've seen that final entry, and know that it's still valid, I will definitely be including it in the next chapter of 'Dark Descent'. :-)
> 
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> Don't be too hard on Lisa, for a certain action she does during this chapter. She just doesn't tolerate melodramatics very well, especially coming from certain sources.

**Chapter 23: Into the Darkness**

**Lakeside Amusement Park - Part 1**

 

They had walked for a long time on the empty road, headed towards a destination that neither one of them wanted to visit. The two women stepped along on Nathan Avenue, walking side by side as they kept watch for any signs of trouble. They had talked about different things on the way here, little things here and there, to keep the silence and emptiness of the town from becoming too oppressive. No deep subjects, since neither of them was ready to bring up past traumas; just little facts and questions about each other, as they tried to get to know each other better. Alessa was calmer now, which made it easier for Lisa to lob some questions at her; she didn’t want to ask anything traumatic, but she wanted to know more about the girl beside her. They walked until they reached the neon coated structure, visible in the distance like some kind of awaiting landmark. As they walked on the highway, they passed billboards, signs, and postings showing how normal the town once was. The advertisements were varied and highlighted some things even Alessa didn’t know about. Of the ads, the Lakeview Hotel was the most prominent.

Alessa was glad things between her and Lisa were back to normal, more or less. There was one little incident that happened between them that she would never forget. They had talked a bit more back at the motel about why Alessa took that drug, and why she felt compelled to go to such extremes. Lisa simply listened patiently, occasionally tossing in a question while taking in what drove her to go to such lengths. Once she was finished, it was what happened next that shocked her. Alessa had to admit, she hadn’t seen it coming at all. Lisa had quietly laid the trail for her, making it seem like everything was alright. Once she was finished comforting her, Lisa had slapped her. Hard. The full blow sent her cheek recoiling, and left her stinging while seeing stars.

“Alessa, if you ever do that to me again, I will hurt you,” Lisa said seriously, the firmness in her voice promising a hint of what awaited if she chose not to heed that warning. “Understand?”

The threat may have sounded dark to someone else, but Alessa knew Lisa wasn’t really promising to cause her pain for her own amusement or to abuse her. She was just extremely upset over what she had done, and was determined to use any methods necessary to prevent it from happening again. She supposed she deserved it. She had put Lisa through hell in those moments when she thought Alessa had died over the stupidest of things, and so she would gladly accept the consequences. If Lisa felt she had to punish her for that in the future, then Alessa would gladly submit to it.

As they passed by the signs, Alessa was struck by how normal the town almost looked, even though it was abandoned. If you took away the fog, it would look like any other town that the residents had just abandoned for some reason. Especially with the neighborhood of South Vale, it didn’t look overly warped or anything. Alessa wondered if that was intentional on the part of the town. The town would lure you in by looking like relatively normal, and it was only when you were trapped here that you realized the horrors that awaited you. Some of the things that went on here were beyond nightmarish, and Alessa didn’t even want to contemplate some of them. Fortunately, none of those things were manifesting at the moment, or else it would be a more frantic walk to the amusement park that they would be undertaking. She didn’t fear anything in this town, but Alessa had to admit, she was afraid to be alone without Lisa by her side. She was going to bury Claudia, and then leave the town with a new companion hopefully, but that didn’t mean it was going to be easy. She didn’t want to face what she knew she would here without her, and she would cling to her with everything she had. Truthfully, she wasn’t really sure how much Lisa was up for this, because Lisa wasn’t a fighter, and she hadn’t been the most proactive in preserving her own life. She could tell the nurse was uncomfortable with this. And she was uncomfortable with setting foot in certain places. If nothing else though, she would be an extra pair of hands, and she would look out for her. Considering she was surrounded by miles and miles of empty town and a few nutcase cultists, that was more than she could ask for.

Night had fallen on Silent Hill by the time the two women made it to their destination. The entrance to the Lakeside Amusement Park stood out like a beacon against the town’s foggy darkness. Barring the colorful, illuminated sign above the front gates, no light was visible anywhere nearby.

Lisa looked at her companion, who was staring at the entryway with something akin to dread. 

“Are you ready?”

Alessa hesitated, but there was no point in delaying the inevitable. “All right, let’s get this over with.”

They headed inside. Alessa kept her Magnum at the ready while Lisa held the handgun Alessa had given her. Only a few steps in, a searing pain suddenly struck Alessa’s stomach, dropping her to her knees.

“Alessa!” Lisa rushed to her aid.

Alessa was in too much pain to respond. The searing pain was tearing through her skull like an ice pick was being driven into her brain, dizzying her equilibrium and almost blinding her to the world around her. And that wasn’t all. This time there was something different. Something new; something frightening. Fire was blazing in her womb; she felt like her stomach would literally burst apart from the inside out. Lisa’s arms were around her, keeping her from hurting herself, but the nurse could offer no real comfort. All she could do was watch as the girl struggle not to faint in her arms from the gut-wrenching internal assault.

Around them, the world began to change. It resembled one layer of reality superimposing itself over another, and Lisa knew what it meant.

“No!” she cried out, clinging desperately to Alessa. No way in hell she would leave her to go through the park alone. It was no use. Alessa disappeared from her arms as Lisa found herself forcibly ripped away from Lakeside’s entrance. 

Alessa recovered soon enough. 

“Lisa?”

She looked around, but there was no trace of the nurse. She was gone. She wasn’t the only thing either. The floor had changed from colorful brick tiles into rusted sheet metal, and the walls around her had taken on the same unpleasant scheme. Once again, she was alone in the Otherworld. 

“Shit!” Alessa cursed aloud, bringing her hand down hard against the air. All that drive, all that determination, and all for nothing. She had promised to herself to look after Lisa, and yet at the nearest little occurrence, the town had taken her away from her; wrenching her away forcefully.

Well, there was nothing she could do. Lisa would just have to make her way through the park alone. Alessa would meet up with her later. She had the gun Alessa had given her, after all. She wasn’t too worried. She would just have to trust that Lisa could look after herself, and didn’t get into too much trouble.

With nothing else to do, and no way out, Alessa proceeded further into the amusement park. A check of the gates back at the entrance confirmed that yep, they were locked and she was stranded here. Lucky her. There was work to do, and she wasn’t going to get out of it. The only way through was forward.

 

~

 

The more Alessa saw of the amusement park, the more familiar it all became. Everything was the same as in her nightmare two days ago, when this whole ordeal began. Bloody rabbit costumes with dead workers inside, burnt corpses in burlap robes impaled into rust-covered cages, dark bottomless chasms; every single thing Alessa saw she recognized from the park in her alarming dream, right down to the giant map of the park on a nearby billboard.

The gift shop was no exception. Like its ‘fantasy’ counterpart, it was filled to the brim with assorted souvenirs, toys, snacks, and clothes promoting the Lakeside themes and colors. There weren’t many useful items for Alessa, though. She found a health drink on one counter and a first aid kit on another. The cookie tins on the shelves looked enticing, but Alessa wasn’t about to eat anything from a place like this. Some of the t-shirts were actually pretty nice, but the thought of taking her shirt off here was revolting. This place was fucked up enough already. She shuddered to think what would happen if she showed that kind of vulnerability even for an instance.

Alessa eyed a pink rabbit doll clad in overalls, sitting on a shelf at the back of the store. Robbie the Rabbit, she recalled. Robbie was the park’s head mascot, and his dolls were prominent in the shop, in colors spanning the range of a rainbow.

She shivered; as a child, she had been scared to death of the thing. It stemmed from one from one of her earliest visits to Lakeside. She was in this very store, just looking around at different stuff, when her eyes fell on a pink Robbie doll exactly like this one. She got closer to it, and then something happened, something that still haunted her to this day. The doll literally moved before her eyes, leering at her with evil red eyes and razor sharp teeth that sent her screaming back to Mommy.

Not surprisingly, nothing happened when her parents checked out the doll. Well, that wasn’t quite true. Her mother thought she was lying and gave her a swift reprimand that went along the lines of, “Alessa, you know better than to make up stuff to us, especially if it involves crying like an infant in public.”

Alessa remembered how upset she was that they didn’t believe her, no matter how much she tried. She cried all the way home, and for days afterwards, she woke up in tears from nightmares of that evil, horrible face snarling at her with bloodthirsty intent. Julie did relent eventually that perhaps her daughter wasn’t lying, but then she insisted that it was only Alessa’s imagination. Dolls just didn’t come to life for no reason in real life. But Alessa was never convinced of that. She knew what she saw and it wasn’t her imagination. Dahlia suspected that something might have happened, but she thought Alessa had exaggerated greatly a minor incident. She wasn’t exactly intimidated by the supernatural aspects of the town’s lore, after all. In fact, it was a source of pride for her, that her town was so “unique”. Which meant, that even in her very few sympathetic moments, she found it hard to understand why other people would find them scary. From then on, she made sure to avoid contact with any Robbie dolls whenever her parents took her to the amusement park.

Looking back on that awful experience, Alessa still didn’t buy Julie’s explanation. The doll in front of her was creepy enough, even without doing anything out of the ordinary. Given Silent Hill’s true nature, she wouldn’t be surprised if the Robbie that scarred her for life as a four year old truly was possessed by something evil.

She wondered if this was the same one.

To say she hurried back to the exit would be an overstatement. She wasn’t a baby scared of a little stuffed rabbit. She was simply cautious, that’s all. Like the old saying went, better safe than sorry.

Suddenly, a loud clang did scare the hell out of her. Alessa drew back startled beyond words, one hand placed firmly against her chest. Her heart was pounding like a beating drum underneath her ribcage as she searched for the source of the commotion the disturbance that almost gave her a heart attack. She found it in a pile of cookie tins scattered on the floor.

Alessa gave a sigh of relief. It was just a bunch of stuff that tumbled over from the shelf. Although why they did so was another question. She didn’t notice anything at first. Then her eyes fell on a small shiny object inside one of the open containers.

_Aha!_

It was a key. The tag on it said “roller coaster”. Somehow, the young woman knew it would come in handy soon.

With nothing else to find, Alessa ventured back into the chaos outside. She didn’t see the black and red veins that spread over the Robbie doll she examined earlier. Moments after the door closed behind her, with her far away from the gift shop, she missed the sight of the thin spider-like limbs that began to emerge from the polyester arms and legs of the doll.

 

~

 

The labyrinth that was Lakeside Amusement Park turned out to be occupied by a formidable amount of monsters. Alessa cut through them as best she could. Some of the less dangerous ones she avoided, like the tall humanoids that had been hounding her since this whole mess started. Others she had to fight.

Two bandaged dogs came at her. The first one Alessa caught with her gun, but the other dodged the subsequent shot. A third burst from the Magnum did the trick, but not before got a glancing bite on her thigh. She cried out, pausing to reflexively grabbing her injured leg. It was a mistake. From behind her came one of the huge fiends. Extending a huge arm, it knocked Alessa to the ground. The monster loomed over her, ready for another strike. She didn’t give it the chance. Aiming high at its skull, three powerful bullets quickly brought the giant down.

Alessa took her time in getting up. She felt her back for wounds and winced: blood flowed freely from a cut on her left shoulder blade. Reaching into her knapsack, she pulled out the health drink she obtained from the gift shop. She forced herself to swallow it; the stuff tasted like crap, but it did a decent job of healing injuries. At the very least, it was better than just putting a bandage on her back.

Too bad it didn’t repair clothing. _I really liked this shirt…_

Drilling became audible close by. Two of the spinning needle creatures were in the vicinity, and Alessa saw they were approaching her fast. She didn’t bother shooting at them. She ran, up the winding stairs that took her high above the ground, away from her horrendous pursuers. Only when she was at the top of the staircase did she relax.

She was greeted by a familiar sight. Like in her nightmare, the office for the roller coaster controls was locked. Alessa smiled. Unlike her dream, this time she had the key.

There wasn’t much inside. A long panel with lots of buttons, lights, and three levers operated took up most of the space. She looked it over with mild curiosity; she had never seen the controls for a roller coaster before. Some ammo and a health drink sat in the corner of the device. Last was something that made a shudder instantly run through Alessa’s body.

She wasn’t sure what it was. It looked like some type of splint with a bone sticking out from the bottom. Alessa guessed it could be someone’s leg, though as morbid as that was by itself, it wasn’t the worst part. Whatever this was, it smelled terrible, like something putrid and rotting that lay out in the sun or some sewer for days. The part around the ‘bone’ was burnt to a crisp, with little patches of blood squirming their way over the whole vile object. Alessa covered her mouth and nose, trying to hold back the bile rising in her throat. She took a few steps back for good measure too. She felt like she would catch something extremely horrible and disgusting if she so much as touched this thing.

Gross.

Alessa tore her eyes away from the revolting display. Only one of the three levers on the coaster control panel was switched on. Alessa recalled how she got run over by the coaster in her recent nightmare. She switched the lever off. Now the power for the coaster was completely turned off.

“Well, that’s one thing taken care of.”

 

~

 

Step by step, Alessa traversed the long track of Lakeside’s roller coaster. She was lucky; the switch between the normal world and the nightmare made flesh left the wooden rails mostly intact. A few chunks were missing here or there, and there was some huge structure to the left of the track that reminded Alessa of a big heap of scrap metal. But for the large part, there wasn’t anything overtly threatening.

Even so, she was careful not to tread too lightly. Surrounded by pitch black darkness, she had no idea how high up over the ground she was. This was one place where she definitely couldn’t afford to lose her balance. One careless step, an accidental slip, and she might either break every bone in her body or plummet down into an endless abyss.

Needless to say, neither option was very appealing. 

Unbeknownst to Alessa, the control room she left behind had other ideas. Away from prying eyes, the coaster mechanism took on a life of its own, resetting the power switch Alessa turned off to the on position. And somewhere on the enormous loop of wood and steel, the roller coaster known as the Lakeside Phantom suddenly flared back to life.

Alessa traversed the track of the roller coaster carefully, one step at a time. She stayed right in the middle of the track, avoiding any obstacles that she came across with the utmost delicacy. She was so high up she was afraid to look down, and she had to take great care not to teeter to one side or the other too much. Parts of the track were broken, and others were just plain missing; she carefully sidestepped around the broken rail, as cautiously as she possibly could. It almost felt like she was in another world up here; there was no noise or wind whatsoever. God, it was impossibly still. She hurried to get across the coaster as safely as she possibly could, so she could finally climb down from here and get back onto solid ground.

Suddenly, she heard a loud noise rocketing towards her. Alessa turned around to see what it was, and realized she recognized the sound. It was the sound of the roller coaster. The roller coaster was heading straight towards her. _Oh, come on!_ Alessa protested loudly in her mind. She had switched the control panel off, and made it so that exactly this kind of thing wouldn’t happen! Damn town. The coaster must have switched itself on again. She had only mere scraps of minutes to think. She had to get off the track so that she wouldn’t be mowed down by the oncoming coaster, but the only way off was the completely open black void below. She had no idea what awaited her down below, or even whether there was any solid ground for her to land on. She could see the lights of the car from the roller coaster far off in the distance, rapidly speeding towards her at an accelerating rate. Alessa had only seconds to spare. She thought about the situation, and it was an impossible choice. Either she stayed on the track and got run over by the oncoming coaster, and thrown off the rails to her death – if the blunt impact itself didn’t kill her, or else she jumped into the void down below and into God-knows-what, possibly breaking her neck and shattering all her limbs, leaving her paralyzed and helpless, if there was even anything down below to break her fall. There was no other way. Alessa chose to risk it. With the roller coaster rapidly approaching like an oncoming freight train, Alessa leaped down into the abyss, only seconds before the coaster came barreling past where she had once been standing.

As the wind swept past her on her way down and her body tumbled, she only hoped there was something down there to break her fall, without breaking her completely. Even if it didn’t matter to anyone whether anything happened to her but Lisa, she still had a job to do.

She tried her best to brace herself, and prayed for a quick landing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Next up: Alessa meets an old friend. (Who doesn't offer much help.) To be continued..._


	28. Childhood Revisited - The Borley Haunted Mansion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Disclaimer: Is Konami even still alive at this point? I think Konami's on life support, in terms of video games. Anyway, Silent Hill belongs to them, yada yada.**
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>    
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>  _AN: Here's a nice Halloween surprise! I really wanted to get this posted for Halloween over here, but Halloween is still going on on the West Coast, so I guess I can post it._
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> 
> _I originally wanted to post this as one sprawling chapter that would be about 20 pages or so long, to make up for the delay time in posting. However, then I remembered that I originally planned to post the Borley Haunted Mansion as its separate chapter, since it's so "special" in the game. So, I'm going with my original plan. That planned cameo by that other character will have to wait until the next chapter, or the next two chapters. ;-D_

**Chapter 24: Childhood Revisited - The Borley Haunted Mansion**

**Lakeside Amusement Park - Part 2**

 

Alessa groaned in pain, and grudgingly began moving again. The fall wasn’t very long thankfully, but it still took a lot out of her. The impact seemed to have knocked her out for a bit, but she seemed to be all right on a cursory glance. Her worst fear was that her neck would be broken, or something in her back would be injured and she would be left paralyzed. She prayed dearly that everything would be all right, as she checked herself over. Everything seemed to be alright though, thankfully. Nothing was broken or sprained, but her entire body ached nonetheless. She was sure she would suffer for it worse later.

She had landed on top of a ticket booth. Sliding herself off the boxy structure, she took a few moments to regain her balance. One look at her surroundings told Alessa that she was near the entrance of another ride. A rather imposing structure stood directly ahead of her, coated with a layer of dark red paint and covered with decaying vines. A small faded sign was placed nearby, near the green dungeon-style door, probably meant to show the ride’s hours and number of tickets. There was nothing else of notice nearby, no other rides or walkways, except some old-style popcorn wagons.

She certainly wasn’t going to have any popcorn. Something didn’t look right about it. Not that she would eat anything in this dimension, anyway.

There was nowhere to go but forward, so Alessa wasted little time in entering the structure. She was met with a rather nice looking scene on the other side. There were no monsters around and no trace of Otherworld decay. Many glowing jack-o-lanterns were scattered amidst 3 long sections of the ground where plants were positioned, surrounded by little fences that reached up to about Alessa’s knee. Two of those formed a small path to a nearby old-style house, forming a little walkway for visitors to proceed calmly and neatly on. It was pleasant, calm. Alessa breathed a sigh of relief; a nice change of pace after all the trouble she had been through so far, with monsters and demons and death traps. A ticket booth at the beginning of the path and a large billboard completed the scenery.

It looked okay enough, but the place was eerily silent. Not a single sound could be heard, and it gave Alessa the creeps. There was a notice posted on the side of the ticket booth.

_-Warning: If you have a weak heart or may be pregnant, please refrain from entering._

“Huh,” Alessa grunted at the statement. It was just the usual warning on rides, and nothing she needed to worry about. Still, a part of her wished the ride ahead was terrifying. In fact, a part of Alessa hoped the ride ahead proved to be the most terrifying thing she had ever seen in her life. Maybe it would be enough to abort the thing that was growing inside her.

She knew how that sounded, and she didn’t care. _‘Gallows humor’, Alessa_ , she told herself, and that was how she was hanging on; it was rather sad. But it was true.

She walked calmly on the concrete path, and went up to the huge billboard previewing the attraction inside with some appealing artwork. Alessa read the lettering on the sign. “Borley Haunted Mansion.” A shudder ran through her.

Alessa had visited the amusement park several times with her parents when she was a little girl. However, she had never gone inside this particular ride. Even at that young age, she had sensed something was wrong with the funhouse, or the place it was built on. She could tell her parents sensed it too. Even some of the tourists seemed a little disturbed by it. The only question was why.

Alessa shook away the disturbing thoughts; she needed to see the situation with clear eyes. There was no sense in relying on old, half-remembered memories to guide her through this. That was the past, and she wasn’t a little girl anymore. She concentrated on taking a good look at the aforementioned attraction and all its details with a fresh view; it wasn’t as impressive as she would have thought. Some “Mansion”, she thought dismissively; the “mansion” was actually little more than a quaint two-story house, reminiscent of the Victorian era.

She walked up the steps to the porch of the “Mansion”. _Well Alessa, time to face your fear._

She wasn’t sure what she was expecting. A dark and creepy foyer perhaps, made of ancient wood that creaked whenever she moved. The plain looking room that greeted her wasn’t it. Alessa was chagrined. The walls were done in a subtle reddish-pinkish hue that was strangely pleasing to the eye. The floorboards were coated in a similar color, except blended with a faint diamond pattern. They were in fairly good condition too; not a single one creaked. A single wooden door led to the next area.

Overall, it was as non-threatening as a person could imagine.

“Welcome to the Borley Haunted Mansion,” a comically ominous voice intoned. It was obvious the speaker knew this was only a funhouse. “We’re so glad you came. Please come inside and look around. When you feel you’re ready, go through the door.” Alessa scoffed at the comically ominous voice.

For a moment Alessa just stood there. She didn’t say anything. What did one say to something like that? She decided to move into the next room.

The second area of the Borley Haunted Mansion was a large dining room. Nothing extraordinary about that, except the walls of this dining room were covered with blood. The crimson fluid was splashed across several feet of the faded wallpaper. It was dry and coagulated. Clearly the blood had been present for quite some time.

Alessa didn’t have to search for the source of the dried life force. It was right next to her. Nearly the entire room was partitioned off by police tape. The large dining table inside was a mess. A multitude of items were haphazardly scattered about. The display all but screamed “crime scene”.

“Help. Help…” a familiar voice wailed. The tour narrator had returned, in a manner of speaking.

“A family of four was sliced into pieces in this very room. The murderer was caught. Do you know why he said he killed his family?” The narrator paused, obviously for dramatic effect. “ _Because I felt I had to!_ Anyway, I’m lying. It's all just a joke. I wanted to scare you, that's all.” Alessa rolled her eyes, in complete opposite of amusement. This place was so lame. The narrator continued. “The truth is only one person died…by suicide!”

Alessa might have laughed, had she not been startled out of her wits by the sudden clap of thunder that rocked the foundation down to its core. Frightened, she turned just in time to see the silhouette of a hanged body outside, illuminated by a burst of lightning.

_Holy…_

Was that a prop she saw or did someone actually hang themselves here? The answer escaped her. Quite frankly, she wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

She thought about what the tour guide said. Was the murder of that family really “just a joke”? But if that was true, then why did the room smell like blood? Suddenly, she figured out why.

Oh yes, this place was a joke. And the joke was on the visitors. They thought they were passing through an ordinary funhouse. Instead they were blithely strolling their way through a real murder scene.

Alessa thought about what the scene of carnage in the dining room told, and the hanging man outside the house, and she put the pieces together. The owner of the house had killed his family, just as the narrator stated, and then hung himself outside the property. Maybe it was guilt over what he did, or maybe something else was controlling his actions, and he was possessed by something. Or maybe he was just insane. Whatever the motive, the house had been left to decay, and the makers of the amusement park had built their funhouse upon the former abode of the family man turned murderer. And then the town had recreated the murder scene here in all its grisly details and glory. The thought made Alessa feel queasy. Or maybe they had done it themselves, having left the murder room where the slayings took place untouched, and simply…’enhancing’ the effect. Alessa couldn’t really be sure in any way, but she had a very positive feeling that was what had happened. She was also willing to bet that body hanging outside was also the real perpetrator, ‘made up’ to look like it was a regular mannequin instead of a body. She couldn’t be certain without taking a look, but she was pretty certain that was the case.

She wondered, what kind of person would build an amusement attraction on the site of a brutal murder? Did they really buy it thinking there would be no bad energy left in the place, that could affect the visitors to the place? Or did they hope that it would ‘add’ to the atmosphere of the place, and make the ride even scarier?

She didn’t want to speculate further on it. Questions like those were ones she didn’t need to know the answers to.

The next room in the house was built in the image of a library. Large wooden shelves containing row after row of books were lined up against the back wall, although Alessa knew they were only props. To her right were an old fireplace and a mantelpiece. The walls on both sides of it were stained by blood. The portion of the room to her left was partitioned off by a small gate. A small round table was placed next to a rather decayed old man who sat lifelessly in the rocking chair. Her first thought was one of incredulous dismissal. Really? Was she supposed to believe it was going to get up and walk at her? Alessa could tell it was a poor fake. It was probably a distraction for the very real actor who would regularly be hiding somewhere around here, behind a panel somewhere, or behind a bookcase. This time the announcer didn’t say a word as she headed for one of the exits.

Walking across the room, Alessa’s curiosity led her to the door farthest from the room’s entrance. However, before she even tried to open the door, a pale body fell from the ceiling with a terrified shriek, scaring the young woman half to death. She jumped back a few feet, placing a bit of distance between her and the corpse. All the while she kept her right hand pressed to her chest, trying to catch her breath and steady her rattled nerves.

“That’s Danny,” the narrator suddenly chimed in. “A quiet young man, but quite friendly, as you can see. He was so eager to meet you. His hometown is New Orleans, but he came here after first losing his way. Oh, maybe you might know. Where is the path to Heaven?”

Alessa breathed heavily with her hand held to her chest, still trying to catch her breath. Jesus, that scared the hell out of her for a single moment. Yeah. Lost his way, for sure. Alessa didn’t pay much attention to the odd question, but she noticed that the narrator’s tone was a different sort of mocking this time. Was it just a silly little comment, or was he ridiculing her personally by taking a little shot at her status as ‘Mother of God’? The idea was silly – she was certain the narrator was just a recording played when someone entered the haunted house. And yet, it still left her a little unsettled.

A closer look at the corpse hanging upside down in front of her made Alessa feel rather ill. Now that the shock of its appearance had passed, she noticed that it wasn’t a dummy. Jesus, it was a real corpse. “Danny” was a real corpse; obviously the remains of someone unfortunate enough to cross paths with Silent Hill’s powers. He looked young, too, dressed in jeans and a simple shirt. Somehow she wasn’t surprised. It figured that a corpse would end up in a place like this, as part of their “attractions”. Maybe she had seen so much, that she was getting numb to all the sights here. Perhaps she was getting used to one macabre sight after another. And yet, somehow she wasn’t surprised that someone from the land of ‘vampires and voodoo hexes’ had gotten lost and ended up here to meet their death. The country was cursed on both ends of the country, it seemed. The deathly pale skin and very unpleasant stench gave her a bit of queasiness, but also made her sorry for whoever the body had once been.

Then again, considering the ‘freaky’ nature of the things here and the demons, perhaps vampires wouldn’t be so bad. Her dad had told her all about the underground colonies of vampires that lived underneath the North American continent, and how they occasionally emerged into New Orleans. At least they were just people, and she knew how to deal with them. What was here was…equal parts unexplainable, evil, demonic, and cosmic horror type scale of activity.

She wondered if Danny had a mother or girlfriend who wondered where he disappeared to, and was never going to return to. Definitely not a pleasant way to die, that was for sure.

Realizing that there was no way she could get past the corpse without touching it and the door was probably useless anyway, Alessa headed back to the other doorway she had seen.

As she headed out of the library, Alessa reflected that during that last explanation, the narrator sounded almost amused, as if this were nothing more than a joke to him. Maybe it was. Maybe that was the real humor behind this place – that what the visitors thought were nothing but childish gags were actually very real horrors that could happen to any of them. Even so, Alessa couldn’t help but feel a sense of disappointment. She had hoped that this would be the most terrifying location she had been through since the beginning, but so far things in the house were coming up woefully short. This place was lame. Even with the disturbing horrors contained inside, the house was little more than a collection of tacky, dime store attractions slapped together by the proprietors, without any real concern for making the place terrifying to the general visiting population. She couldn’t believe she had ever found it scary as a child.

In the next room, she was confronted by an area that reminded her of some very old prison. The floor was made entirely of old wooden boards that didn’t look very stable to Alessa. To her right and directly ahead of her were collections of iron bars that formed several jail cells. At the very back of the room lay another wooden door, with a sign marked “Exit”.

“This mansion is quite old. So please watch your step. Sometimes the floor suddenly gives way. And beneath the floor, there’s nothing.”

Great. As if she needed more things to worry about.

Alessa started crossing the distance, one careful step after another. She couldn’t be too careful, and she was ready to leap and hold on to the bars if the floor started rotting underneath her. The aged boards creaked with every step Alessa took. She was only a few steps ahead when a monstrous slam shook across the small space, rocking the room down to its foundations. Alessa shrieked and flinched violently, almost wanting to drop to the floor and covering her head in case the roof was collapsing.

Nothing happened. Alessa waited a few seconds; she had her hand pressed against her chest, feeling her hammering heart underneath. But when all remained still, she looked up. What she saw gave her the urge to scream or tear at her hair or kill something in frustration, and also left her feeling cold inside.

Just a few inches above where her head had been were some huge and very sharp-looking, rust frosted spikes. The ceiling was lined with them. Were it not for a few inches, the spikes would have smashed her into a gruesome death.

It was then Alessa became aware of something else. She looked down to see the wet spot spreading across the crotch of her jeans, and growing rapidly. Well, it had to happen sometime. Frankly, after all of the terrifying things she had seen and been through so far, she was surprised it hadn’t happened sooner. Alessa sighed. She was going to have to find some place with water and get cleaned up, before she saw Lisa again. There were certain images of herself she wanted to convey to Lisa, a certain presence she wanted to maintain, and the last thing she wanted was for Lisa to see her as a little girl.

_Okay, not so lame_ , Alessa corrected silently to herself. The house had gotten one on her – she would give it that.

Once again, the haunted house narrator’s voice intruded out of nowhere. “I’m so sorry. This place is just falling apart. The mechanism is broken, you see. It wasn’t supposed to stop there, I assure you.”

“Yeah, I’m sure it wasn’t,” Alessa replied scathingly. What was it about this place, and reality in general, that hated her so badly? It was just one thing after another it seemed, on this neverending cycle of an ordeal. She thought about throwing a tantrum, but she decided against it, since she didn’t have the energy. She was too humiliated at this point.

She walked to her right down to the exit. Despite the earlier warning, the old wood didn’t give way.

Finally, she reached the alleged exit to the place.

“There’s the exit. I hope you enjoyed your stay. Feel free to come back anytime.” The narrator’s voice took on an ominous note. “Or if you’d prefer, we could come visit you instead.”

Something told Alessa he wasn’t quite kidding.

The second she found herself in another hallway Alessa knew something was up. Despite what the narrator said this wasn’t the exit. She proceeded cautiously, senses on high alert, wondering what trick the prankster of this resident madhouse had up his sleeve. Suddenly, a bizarre sensation invaded her awareness. The feeling was unlike anything she had ever experienced before, almost akin to hundreds of intruders poking at the back of her consciousness, trying to force their way inside.

And then she was running.

The disturbance in her mind grew to an audible piercing wail. To a normal person it would have been a bothersome, but tolerable distraction. To Alessa however, the torrent of sound that assaulted her senses was nearly maddening. Alessa heard something that other people would not: the chilling screams of the damned underlying the main sound wave. Agonized pleas and tormented cries assaulted her in a jumble of telepathic backlash, threatening to irreparably shatter her sanity.

They were after her. Alessa risked a look back and saw just what they were: a terrible red mist culled from the life forces of hundreds of Silent Hill’s victims. The mist engulfed the entire hallway, swallowing everything in its path like a ravenous beast devouring its meal. And it burned. The sweltering heat scalded Alessa’s back, urging her to run as quickly as possible despite her exhaustion.

It wasn’t easy to traverse the maze-like corridor. This part of the Mansion was filled with twists and turns, and fake self-sealing passageways designed to throw off unsuspecting visitors. Alessa barely managed to stay ahead of her relentless pursuer. To add to all that, the narrator suddenly returned, making his voice audible over the low hum of the fog seemingly intent on taunting her again.

“That was supposed to be the exit. But it seems that no one wants you to leave. Everyone really likes you. They want you to stay with them forever,” the narrator said off-handedly, as if she wasn’t being pursued by a burning hell cloud.

“I have to agree with them. Don’t be afraid. Dying is much easier than living,” the narrator remarked.

_Shut the fuck up_ , Alessa yelled at him in her mind, navigating another turn. She ducked into a doorway. Alessa thought she was safe pressed against the door to keep it closed, but she soon heard the low hum of the mist and the fog materialized through the door, a reminder that she had to haul ass again. The fog was almost like a living creature, knowing how to navigate each and every turn. Alessa was surprised, but she supposed with that many life forces put together the circumstances gave it a considerable intelligence. The hum was nearly intolerable, and the screams she was hearing from the dead were even worse.

Alessa navigated the twists and turns of this second hallway, making a left and a right and then another left. She was so engrossed in getting clear of this aggressively intimidating mist, that she lost count of how many turns she actually made. The fake barriers closed every time she approached a turn, blocking off any potential escape from the mist. Alessa ran like her life depended on it, which it very much did, until she finally saw a glimmer of hope. She finally saw the exit at the end of a sharp turn, waiting for her to reach it. Alessa hauled her body as much as she could, pushing her burning muscles to the breaking point, with the spirits right behind her. Until at last, she made it.

Alessa slammed the door shut behind her, leaving behind the Borley Haunted Mansion forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _AN: "The land of vampires and voodoo hexes" is a title given to New Orleans by an old paranormal program, which was actually pretty good at detailing creepy locations. I think it fits. Whether you believe vampires are real or not, and I think they're not, they are associated with the city, and are a really famous part of its pop culture status._  
>     
>    
>    
>    
>  _So, the list of things that are real in this universe, so far: demons, grey aliens (though not the ones from the UFO endings; they're in another story...), vampires...and of course, The Tall Man. ;-) You'll see more of him later on, in other stories set in this timeline not directly connected to 'Dark Descent'._


	29. Revelations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Disclaimer: Silent Hill belongs to Konami. No money is made off this fic._
> 
> Phantasm belongs to Don Coscarelli, and whoever else owns the series.

**Chapter 25: Revelations**

**Lakeside Amusement Park - Part 3**

 

Alessa leaned back against the door, holding it shut with her arms across the wood as she sighed in relief. She didn’t trust that the cloud of energy wouldn’t try to burst through the doorway and pursue her anyway, out into the park. What the hell was that? She wouldn’t have believed the town could surprise her anymore than it already had, but it had once again proven her wrong. Now she had seen everything. And that smarmy narrator…what was up with him? She couldn’t shake the feeling that she should know who he was, or make a connection to something else she had seen, but she just couldn’t figure it out. Maybe she was imagining it. She struggled to get herself down from the high of adrenaline, trying to catch her breath and calm herself down to normal levels. She was still covered in a slight sheen of sweat from her previous experience.

The sound of growling nearby told Alessa she wasn’t going to get a break anytime soon. She looked up to see three huge forms stumbling out of the darkness, sandbag arms dragging low to the ground while they advanced on their prey. Shit. She had that sub-machine gun stuffed into her backpack, still waiting for the perfect opportunity to be utilized. She had picked up some ammo for it on the rooftop at the hospital, about a few dozen bullets’ worth. She hoped they were up to the task, and weren’t completely useless against this mass of flesh. Pulling out her machine gun and making sure it was fully loaded, she waited just until they were within range. She opened fire on the creatures, taking careful aim at their heads which she knew were the weak points, rather than the mass of flesh on their chest which was a wide target of muscle – but also very solid, and thickly built. The creatures didn’t stop moving, but they winced as the bullets hit them in the face, stumbling a bit in their stances for a moment.

Ducking and weaving in between the three gigantic lumbering masses, she tried to keep just out of reach of the creatures. The creatures swiped with large blades that emerged from within their arms. She knew she had to avoid those huge blades, because even just one across her back would be enough to bring her to her knees, and they could easily kill her then. Not that she minded much if she died – if it weren’t for Lisa, and the thought of leaving her alone here, in the darkness – but she had come here to do a job, and she had to stay alive, no matter how much it hurt. She fired upwards and sprayed bullets at their upper chests, intending to hit the heads but missing her target by a narrow bit. And suddenly she realized this wasn’t working. The bullets were just too weak, and they weren’t fazing the creatures enough. She had to think of a different approach. She put away the machine gun, and pulled out her Magnum. Hopefully, the bullets had weakened them enough that this wouldn’t be an issue.

Dodging a blade from a swiping arm that came narrowly close to the side of her ear, Alessa took a few steps back as quickly as she dared to run without stumbling back. Taking careful aim with her Magnum, she focused her target squarely on the heads of the creatures in front of her. She didn’t want to waste bullets on these minor enemies, but it was obvious there was no choice in this matter. She fired at the heads of the creatures, one after another after another. Three solid shots were enough to bring them down, crumbling the giants from their formidable statures. Two consecutively, and one after dodging a swipe from a huge arm that was clearly intending to impale her – she almost found it too easy to move between the slow, lumbering forms that hadn’t a prayer of keeping up with her. They were angry, she could tell, wanting to get their next meal, but that did nothing to stop their faces from exploding in a mass of gore as she gunned them down mercilessly, one after the other. The giant forms folded like crumpled pieces of paper, writhing on the ground. Alessa didn’t even have to execute them, crushing them with a stomp as she usually did. A grotesque crunching sound sounding like a cross between a growl and a death rattle echoed across the air between the forms and her; Alessa heard it quite clearly, and nastily.

She wiped the sweat off her brow, because this was getting to be too familiar. She was getting used to this, never a good thing. She was starting to see them as just other animals to be gunned down, and not as monsters to be terrified of, and that meant the town was losing its effect on her, at least in this regard. She took a few steps forward, looking for the entrance to the next area, or areas. What would she be like, she wondered, if she ever got out of here? Would she ever be able to live a normal life, knowing that things like this were lurking around every corner, _expecting_ them to be in every corner? If Lisa couldn’t hold her together, she could easily see herself slipping into some very dark places, never being settled again. Was she becoming what could affectionately be referred to as a sociopath?

Alessa looked back at the three bodies on the ground. It figured that the town would throw something like this at her, after that hell in the fun house. She thought about the massive cloud of souls she had encountered. She felt bad for them, but there wasn’t anything that she could do for them. There were just too many souls in that cloud for her to even attempt to do anything like that, never mind succeed at it. It was bad enough trying to rescue one soul, like Lisa, never mind rescuing one thousand.

She saw the entrance that she was supposed to go in, leading to the other part of the amusement park. She knew that led to the rocket ride, according to the map. It was a dark tunnel with no visibility, which set her on her guard. Suddenly, however, she saw another exit to the right of that. Strange, she wasn’t aware there was another part of the amusement park besides that. It had been a long time since she had been here in any capacity, but she didn’t remember there being any other amusement park attractions that way. And it certainly wasn’t on the map. She felt her curiosity stir, reluctantly as that was.

She surprisingly considered which way to go. On the one hand, she really needed to get to Douglas, and find Lisa, wherever she was. On the other hand, she was curious to see what was waiting there in that mysterious new direction. Lisa had been dead for a while, so there wasn’t really much they could do to hurt her, and Douglas could take care of himself. She was well armed, and already pumped from her encounter in the mansion. Surely she could take 15 minutes to investigate, right? It couldn’t be too bad, considering what she already went through. If it got too dangerous, she could just turn around and haul tail back to the amusement rides…

She took the right path.

The passageway was full of water, all the way up to her waist; it wasn’t really closed, but open on the rooftop in a crescent shape. With the night sky being starless though, there wasn’t really anything but darkness. She held in a small burst of excitement as soon as she saw the water. _Yes!_ She was grateful for the water, as it would at least allow her to get clean. Alessa didn’t want to meet Lisa in her previous state under any circumstances; not if she could help it. There were certain things you just didn’t do, and the last image she wanted to cultivate was that of a little girl in front of Lisa. Alessa waded through the water calmly, pushing forward with her arms not caring in the slightest that she was now soaked to the bone on her entire lower body. It wasn’t a bar of soap and a shower, but it was better than nothing.

After several minutes, she emerged from the tunnel into an open area. She was swamped from all the water in the passageway, but oddly enough that didn’t bother her at all. She felt like she was scrubbing off all the grime from the past areas she had been through, going through that haunted house and the rusted amusement park before it. She looked around at her surroundings, trying to make sense of where she was. It looked like she was in a wooded area just outside the amusement park. That was curious. She didn’t know there _was_ anything outside the amusement park of notice, besides the streets and the few trees left over not taken over by the industrial building of the amusement park. Something felt off about this whole area, but she couldn’t put her finger on what it was. A large Victorian style house stood in the distance, like a bastion awaiting its visitors at the top of the hill. The house looked out of place compared to the other structures of the amusement park, and she wondered what its true purpose was, although she was reminded a bit of the Haunted Mansion.

There was a path leading up to the house, a small distance away from the steps of the tunnel from which she had emerged. The path was a dirt road, winding a bit until it led up to the grounds where the house was standing. Small candles lit the way up to the house, serving as a faint source of light and also looking like some type of holy ground for a church or a cathedral. In short, it was your typical spooky path that you might find in any horror attraction, and it left Alessa feeling a little uneasy with the whole thing.

Alessa walked up the path leading up to the house. She looked around for any hints of what this place was supposed to be, or what it was doing here. There was a small wooden sign off to the right of the dirt path leading up to the house. Alessa walked over to it and took a look, reading over the finely scripted writing. _Welcome to Xuchilbara’s House of Wax_ , read the sign. “House of Wax?” Alessa scrunched her face up in confusion. Why would you name a wax museum after a god? She could understand one being named after Zeus or Apollo she supposed, because they were well known and powerful. But a smaller known god, who was only worshiped by a few people in a small region? What was the attraction? Matter of fact, this whole place was odd, even among the other segments of the town.

She didn’t know there was a wax museum here. Was this a new construction? She didn’t know of anything like this being constructed here. The sign was ornately stylized and trimmed with gold edges on the borders, matching the design of the “Welcome to Silent Hill” sign Alessa saw when entering the outskirts of the town. That showed that they obviously cared about the motif of the attractions, and took great care to make it appealing. Why? Why put it on the outside of the amusement park, with no advertising inside, if they were that devoted to making it appealing? She wondered what type of attractions might be housed inside in this particular museum.

With trepidation and readying her gun, she went inside.

The inside of the museum was small and closed in, resembling the Historical Society she had visited once, when she was a child. The desk held a pamphlet for visitors, and there were a couple benches in a sitting area for waiting. The small lobby led into a wider open area, where historical items were being displayed. The wider room led to a black curtain in the back, behind which the main attractions lurked.

Alessa walked up to the items behind the glass and examined them closely. They were all insignificant items of historical relevance, a goblet here, a dagger there, though Alessa wondered why they were here instead of at the Historical Society. Had the minds behind the museum paid to have them at the house for additional appealing factor? Or had the items manifested here for some other unknown reason?

Not knowing what awaited her behind the curtain, Alessa went past the black barrier separating the two sections.

The first attraction awaited a few feet away. Alessa walked up to it, examining the finely crafted details of the figures. A group of people stood around a cart of supplies and gathered together wielding hand tools. Alessa recognized these people. They were the first settlers who had come to the town, after the plague that wiped out the first settlers. The old fashioned clothes from the 1800’s and very stern demeanor couldn’t have made that more obvious. And Alessa gasped at the man of the display. A dark haired gentleman with curly hair, boldly leading the crowd in their new endeavor. Lorenzo Gillespie, that was her ancestor. Alessa knew him well, from the family history books Dahlia had given her to study. And of course, his role in the Order couldn’t have been more prominent. There was a bright red button next to a speaker, obviously there for audiences to get certain information about the exhibit from a pre-recorded message. Curious despite herself, Alessa went and pressed the red button, opening up her ears to listen closely to whatever the announcer had to say.

“The settlers of Silent Hill…” a deep toned voice began. _Oh no_ , Alessa realized; it was the same narrator from the haunted house. He sounded more serious, though, and wasn’t trying to startle someone out of their mind. Alessa listened closely while he elaborated on the story of the exhibit. “Determined travelers from various regions of Europe, the primary settlers to Silent Hill came to the area that is now the town to start a new life. They built a town they could be proud of, finding a great strength in the calm heart of the town and learning to harness the resources of the majestic environment around them. It was there that they discovered the true faith, and immersed themselves in the truth in the culture around them, enriching their lives beyond faith. These hearty souls and pioneers are the ancestors of the famous resort town that exists today and is known all over the world,” the narrator intoned.

Hmm. That was actually less than she thought. Alessa examined the figures closely, taking in all of the details. The figures were finely crafted and contained exquisitely rich details, for a cheap small town version of a wax museum. And sure enough, there in the arms of the middle figure in the group was a bible. It didn’t look like the Christian version. Alessa wondered in awe at the statement of putting their bible in the middle of a display, flaunting their faith right in front of everyone. Were they that confident about their standing in the town, that they could claim it as their own and nobody would object to it? Alessa wondered about the attitudes of those old settlers when they arrived in the town. Those had come primarily from regions of England, Germany, and Italy, seeking a new life. That was when they found the faith, and transformed it as their own. Were they aware of what they were doing, and what the order would become eventually, further down the line? Or did they genuinely think they were doing the right thing, and simply wanted to worship freely like everyone else? The path the Order had gone down on was a dark one, and Alessa wondered what it was like at the beginning, in its inception.

She moved on to the next exhibit. The complete obscurity of the chamber gave the museum an eerie atmosphere, like each exhibit was in its own little shadow world, located in a void from off the rest of reality. The atmosphere was a bit chilly too, despite there not being an air conditioner. Alessa wondered what was going on with the town this time. She moved past the next black curtain and headed to the next exhibit. It was a bit of a long walk, despite the size of the house on the outside, compared to other museums she had been at. It gave her some sense of confusion, and a slight sense of uneasiness. Finally, she reached the next exhibit, sitting right in the middle of the room, which was cordoned off by ropes to prevent the people from touching the figures. The moment she reached the next display, she understood why. Her face assumed a shocked expression, and her jaw fell slightly slack as she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She couldn’t believe this was a real display.

Alessa’s eyes widened as she caught sight of the central figure. It was him!

The giant figure of the Executioner greeted her from the middle of the display. He was holding a spear in his left hand and seemed ready to strike with it, raining down vengeance like some kind of lightning bolt. The smock and huge rusted helmet resembled exactly what she had encountered earlier. Alessa was aghast at the detail shown in the figure, and how perfectly it captured the details of the Executioner, if a little less huge in size. (And with a lot less blood.) The figure was accompanied by two smaller Executioners, one to the side of it on each side, and more gruesomely, the figure of a man in shackles to their left. The figure was writhing in agony, at what they were going to do to it. It looked like a scene of pure, utter hell.

“The Executioners of Silent Hill. Emerging in the 1800’s as an alternative to more traditional executioners and their craft, the masked dealers of death blended religion and judgment, carrying out their task against the prisoners under their charge with a grim certainty of the rightness of what they were doing. Stationed at Toluca Prison Camp, the executioners awarded the prisoners held there with the last bit of dignity they would feel in their life. To choose their method of death – that was the last gasps of freedom afforded to a prisoner…” the narrator intoned ominously…

Alessa stepped up to the statues curiously. The statues were almost as intimidating as the thing she had faced earlier, although having faced the real thing, she couldn’t quite bring herself to be afraid of them. Alessa looked over the details, as she pondered what the narrator had just said about their past. Were the men behind those hoods convinced they were doing the right thing? Or were they just plain sadists, relishing in the destruction they were causing? The prisoners that the Toluca Prison Camp housed were mainly Confederate soldiers from the Civil War, and Alessa couldn’t quite bring herself to sympathize with them. She still hated them, and their insistence on fighting for what was inarguably a stupid idea. As many things that were wrong with Dahlia, the one thing Alessa could say about her was that she was glad none of her ancestors had ever engaged in that crap. On the other hand, the way the executioners made their prisoners choose between a gruesome death by hanging or skewering spoke of a sadistic vicious side to the attitude of those men under their ceremonial costumes. Alessa felt a little shudder go through her, as she imagined how much those men must have enjoyed carrying out the “sentences” on the prisoners.

She followed the route up to the next exhibit. As it turned out, the next exhibit was on the second floor. She walked up the stairs and past another black curtain, to the next scene inscribed in a life-sized diorama. As soon as Alessa entered, she noticed a large group of people circled around a fire. The people were Native American, and clad in ceremonial garb, with accompanying facepaint. The people were placed with their arms up into the heavens, and were obviously worshiping some kind of being. Alessa gasped; this was always one of the things about her town she’d wanted to learn more about. She walked over closer and peered into the fascinating, almost eerily lifelike display with LED fire. Alessa looked closely at the details, and noticed what the objects being sacrificed were – a serpent and a reed. There was something with which she was incredibly familiar, and needed no explanation.

“The native inhabitants of Silent Hill,” the narrator intoned, in an almost ominous tone. “The original stewards of the land, the native tribe lived peacefully here, worshiping their gods and tending carefully to the land. They called this place the ‘Place of the Silent Spirits’. They believed each of the segments of nature around them – the trees, the rocks, lakes and rivers, had their own spirits associated with them, and to anger them was to invite disaster. The native tribe worshiped peacefully there for many years. But eventually, their land was taken from them by settlers from European lands, who came to spoil the placid lives the natives led by settling the land for themselves. Today the legacy of these native people can still be seen strongly around us, influencing the very lives of those who live in the town, in the form of the religion called the Order. Their legacy of beliefs lives on, enriching the history of the town and protecting it from those who wish to keep a veil over the true history of Silent Hill,” the narrator finished his story.

Alessa approached the diorama. Strange, she hadn’t pressed the button on the speaker. Maybe it was motion activated. Alessa thought about what he said. The native population of Silent Hill had worshiped the area peacefully, and maintained a delicate balance until the European settlers took their lands away from them. They revered the land as sacred, and believed spirits inhabited every inch of the area around them. That brought the foremost question to mind. Had the natives known exactly what it was they worshiped? Or did they truly believe it was a genuinely sacred, benevolent power? Or had the town been corrupted by the essence of Man’s darkness, through all the horrible acts that had been committed since? Alessa had no way to answer these questions, but it gave one pause to think.

She turned away from the display. There was nothing else to hear; the narrator had gone silent. She still wondered how he had activated without her touching anything in the first place, but maybe it was one of those things that was better not to question.

As she moved toward the exit, Alessa thought she had figured out the timeline of this whole, accursed town. The natives had worshiped the power here, and believed it to be sacred. But they had their lands taken from them, and were replaced by the European settlers. The immigrants had taken their Christian beliefs and added them to the native ones to create a kind of quasi-new religion. As the Civil War raged, the power here became corrupted, growing in intensity with each atrocity committed in the town, until it finally got to the breaking point they had now. The Christian presence here didn’t help matters either; they only added fuel to the fire, with their barbarous acts throughout the early 20th, 19th, and 18th centuries. The monstrous act done to her by Dahlia her own mother, when she burned their family house down and Alessa with it, had been the final straw. Alessa knew there were gods here, but they were just one part of the fabric that made up the town, and there were things here she didn’t know about. But the question remained, was the power present in the town always malevolent, and the actions of humankind had just driven it to an extreme? Or had the power here truly been benevolent at one point, and the atrocities mankind had done had corrupted it entirely? Was the town really reflecting what was in people’s minds and hearts at this point, or had the gods truly turned against the people here? Was it all three?

The evil that men do…Alessa sighed. She should know – she had almost been beaten to death by a group of Christian kids in her childhood. The question was whether humans were solely responsible for the current state of the town, or whether the town had a darker nature that their indiscretions simply facilitated. For a long time, she had thought that the town had been a sacred positive place before the people got a hold of it, but the more she saw of the town, the more she wasn’t sure. She knew the cult’s god was evil. Was it the main power controlling the town? Or was it just one aspect of many, the one the cult chose to focus on?

As she opened the exit door, she shook away the thought. Better to focus on what she could control. It was all so confusing. She pushed open the door, and walked into a darkened corridor. Well, that was a nice little bit of learning, but she was all ready to go. This place had nothing more to teach her. She took a few steps into the next section, and stopped in her tracks.

The room was dark all around her. It wasn’t a hallway, it was another chamber. Alessa felt a bit of outraged protest. There wasn’t supposed to be another room! There were only four displays here; this was a minimum amusement park attraction, but it was acceptable for what it was. This wasn’t in any section of the diagram downstairs. There was a light shining at the center of the room, highlighting a still figure. Alessa approached the display from the darkened edges, and her jaw fell open in shock.

The light at the center fell on an unidentified figure. The figure was placed on a pedestal, obviously to elevate it based on some kind of stature. The figure was female, and its features were entirely blacked out, standing at the middle like some kind of obelisk. A shadowy silhouette, guarding over the expanse of the chamber. The female figure was obviously important, and stood with a poise intended to awe visitors, or perhaps intimidate. Alessa got a sinking feeling, for some reason she couldn’t identify.

The narrator introduced his voice once again, and Alessa listened closely for any insight he was about to divulge…

“The Holy Woman of Silent Hill. This figure has been central in the town’s mythology since almost the very beginning, and is a prominent symbol of their faith. Destined to return a proverbial utopia to the residents of the earth, the Chosen Mother will lead the faithful to their deserving salvation, purportedly with blood-stained hands. She is powerful, wise, deadly, sacred beyond all, and a true child of the world’s God. But the bearer of this role must first be cleansed with fire, for the benefit of all. She herself will cleanse the others in the world with fire, in anticipation of the forthcoming fire. Though there have been other prominent symbols of religion in Silent Hill, the Holy Woman stands as the persistent image of salvation in the area’s mythology, when she will birth a God that will deliver us into Her Kingdom. We look forward to the day when she will one day grace us with her generous presence, and spread her divine gift towards the rest of us.”

The recording stopped there.

Alessa inched closer, and gaped at the display. This was…this was her! Why had they put her in here?! She looked closer, and saw that the dimensions did indeed match those of the woman she had seen in paintings, before in the art gallery. This made no sense. Why was this here? This was supposed to be an attraction at an amusement park, for the general public! It was insulting, hearing all that stuff about God and paradise earlier, and her supposed role in the world, when she knew the truth. She didn’t need to hear this again, especially from some pre-recorded messenger who sounded like a radio host. What was the purpose of this being here? It was almost like they were bragging about their beliefs to the entire audience of the town, uncaring about what anyone thought of them! But that wasn’t possible. The Order thrived on secrecy, and facades based on manipulations. They wouldn’t risk exposing themselves like that, and gaining the ire of those non-believers of the town and visiting audience who weren’t Order members. So, why then the display? Something was off here.

Alessa tried to puzzle it out, for several seconds, but eventually gave up. There was no way to know for sure, without the narrator elaborating more on the display. And no more answers were forthcoming. Without any more hints on the room’s walls or in the plaque, there was no way of knowing who had placed that display there, or why they had done so. It wasn’t worth the effort.

Well, there was no use in hanging around here. She had other places to be. She headed towards the door marked ‘exit’, taking one last leery look at the statue that so resembled her basic form. This was the third such tableau she had encountered, and she was beginning to wonder why the town, or indeed the world, had such a fascination with her. It left her feeling more than a little uncomfortable. She turned the doorknob and exited out of the room.

The door led to a stairwell, circling down into the floor below. Alessa was annoyed by that; she really didn’t want to go by the first floor again, but she guessed she had no choice. She navigated the stairs down and went through the door leading back to the main floor. As it turned out, she emerged just behind the gallery’s main exhibit, amidst a small gift shop. There was another door ahead, presumably leading to the exit.

As she passed by, she glanced back at the main exhibits behind her. It was a long road back, to get back to where she had come from. She didn’t want to walk past those figures again; the two pyramid head ones were particularly creepy. And she would have to walk all the way back to the haunted mansion, and go through that dark tunnel again. She decided to take a chance, and see where it led her.

She emerged into a completely darkened room with black walls and corners, with barely any visible light from the ceiling to guide her. There were large rectangular panels shimmering everywhere she looked, reflecting what faintly visible light there was to an astonishing degree. Alessa took one step and forced herself back, staring in awe at the sight. What the…? There were mirrors everywhere, lining both sides of the hall, in multiple perspectives of views, reflecting perfectly her reflection in myriad straight and distorted forms. Despite her disbelief of the situation, her eyes didn’t fool her. This was a Hall of Mirrors.

Alessa balked at the bizarre discovery. Why was there a funhouse back here?! She thought the previous area was supposed to be educational! Yes, this was an amusement park, so it made sense that there would be a funhouse somewhere, but why back here – connected to the wax museum, with no prior warning for visitors in the gift shop? Why wouldn’t it be on its own, instead of being connected to a superficially educational attraction? Yes, she knew that some people probably came to leer at the figures, rather than be educated by them, but that was a far cry from staring at yourself in the mirror, and watching the funny shapes.

The mirrors almost packed the room, like their own little maze. It was like she was in a void, and the spotlight was solely on her; her own private “Night Gallery”. Alessa felt a little uncomfortable, to be honest.

Alessa stared at the reflections offered to her by the various mirrors, each one different from the other. Some of them were distorted, shortening, widening, or extending her body to impossible limits. Others were just strange, with something not quite right about them due to the effect the mirrors had instilled in them. Some were normal, but presented from an angle she had never seen before, or presented from a multitude of different views; a veritable kaleidoscope of different images and angles. Alessa wondered why people saw this as fun. She had never cared to look at herself much in the mirror, and she certainly didn’t want to see herself distorted or warped in a reflection, even if it was just ‘for fun’. She wasn’t a vain person, nor did she have a complex about her appearance. This wasn’t fun for her; it was just odd.

Alessa took a look at her appearance in one of the ‘normal’ mirrors. She was dirtied and bruised, with her hair stringy, and her skin having a pale demeanor that definitely wasn’t healthy for her. She looked like hell. The battle here was taking a toll on her. She needed to rest and eat something nutritious, but there was no time. Although Alessa wasn’t a vain person and didn’t look in the mirror much, she did have some self-awareness about her appearance. And what she saw right now was definitely worse for wear. She didn’t think she looked this bad. Lisa definitely wouldn’t want to see her like this. She wondered why the nurse neglected to tell her that she looked like hell; if she thought she was being nice by denying Alessa the reality of how horrible she looked at the moment. She didn’t know whether she was amused or sad at the prospect; she thought she was being suave and not too eager when she seduced Lisa, maybe even a little sexy, but instead she probably came off as a person desperate to get off to distract herself from her other troubles. She shook her head in bemusement.

Suddenly, the colors began to swirl in the mirrors, spiraling into some type of vortex, with an almost hypnotic effect. The jumble coalesced, and Alessa realized that she could ‘see’ things in the mirror; images that appeared to be from another time and place, small in size and greatly expanding to fill up the entire sheet of glass. She saw natives worshiping some mysterious figure in a plume of smoke from a fire, men in pyramid hoods preparing to skewer prisoners, many different figures and places from the town’s history flashing by almost too quickly to notice. Was the mirror showing her a glimpse of the town’s history, what really happened? And if so, why? What was the purpose this time? Then, the image formed into one single picture. Alessa held her breath.

The first image she saw was that of a young woman, standing at an altar. She was clad in a dark modest dress, cardigan and shawl, looking like twice her age and from another decade. Alessa recognized the woman and was shocked to realize she was very familiar. It was Dahlia. Her auburn hair looked very different than the gray Alessa remembered, partially covered by the shawl. Was it dyed, to obscure the natural black color? She looked youthful, beautiful, and almost innocent. Alessa immediately recognized the church she was standing in: she had been to that church herself many times as a child. So Dahlia had been a different person once, than the woman Alessa knew. Why was the town showing her this?

Gradually, the images changed. She saw Dahlia standing next to a dark haired, older man with casual clothes and a serious demeanor. The mustached face he wore was solemn, and it looked like they were outside, enjoying a calm stroll on a sunny afternoon. Suddenly, the images coalesced into something else. Dahlia was kissing the man passionately, and the man had her slammed back against a bookcase, while he roamed his arms passionately around her. Alessa was shocked; she had never seen her very older mother display such carefree affection towards someone before, much less in a romantic setting. Their mumbled phrases and fervent gestures gave her pause. Alessa could read lips to an extent, and the word rushed past her mother’s lips sent a torrent through her as her sharp mental ears picked it up. _Uncle._ This man was Dahlia’s uncle. Dahlia was having an affair with her own uncle. The revelation shocked her to the core, and made her stand back in jaw hanging silence.

_Guess it runs in the family_ , Alessa thought in a self-deprecating manner, but it still didn’t lessen the shock of what she’d just been told. She didn’t even know that Dahlia had an uncle, that she had a life before her rampant abuse of Alessa. She didn’t even know that she was capable of love, that she was capable of lust even…and other human things. Boy, was she learning a lot today, wasn’t she? And the worst part was the town was only beginning to show her what it had known all along, it seemed. Who knew what else it had in store? She almost dreaded to ask.

The images continued to shift, spiraling down as in a vortex as they showed her new things. She saw Dahlia kneeling down, with some hideous, tall creature standing before her. The creature stood several feet taller, looming over her, with no visible face and a yellowish hue to his skin. Alessa recognized him as Valtiel, the attendant to God. What the hell were they doing? It almost looked like Valtiel was blessing her, or they were communicating with each other somehow. They were in a church somewhere, and the vision was hazy and surreal. It was almost like peering into the past through the mists of time, except it almost resembled a fantasy, because there was no way Dahlia was humble before anyone. The possibility seemed incomprehensible.

The images swirled around on the screen, coalescing into another vision of events for her to decipher. She saw her parents, her chosen parents that she had unknowingly called to, fully nude, and uninhibited in their bedroom. They were making love, freely indulging themselves without a care in the world. Alessa almost cringed upon the sudden intrusion on the privacy, until she realized this had already happened. Julie was mounted on Chris, meeting every thrust as his body arched up into hers, engaging freely in their affection. But something was wrong. Alessa forced herself to look closer, because the town wouldn’t have shown her this unless there was something here worth knowing. And then she saw it. There was a dark presence in the room with them, in the very atmosphere, something vague and intangible. She looked close and saw it on the mirror clear as day. They were possessed. The entity was inside their very bodies while they were locked in intercourse, passing its energy between the two of them. _Oh God!_

Alessa brought her hand up to her mouth in a wave of revulsion and disgust. Valtiel was inside of their bodies simultaneously, this time appearing as some hideous winged form overlaid over them, while they were loving, _fucking_ , each other, nurturing the infant that was inside Julie. The infant that was now her. Julie was being used as a vessel to harbor the Holy One by Dahlia and the Order. Her abilities were natural, but they were being enhanced by the demon that now harbored itself in both her parents, penetrating them in the most intimate way possible, back in that time period, passing its energy to her every time they made love – Valtiel was a god of flesh and hunger, after all; outside of his role as attendant of God. Alessa felt a wave of nausea and disgust, and she choked it down painfully, as she realized the horror of her existence.

Julie was being used as a host to harbor the Holy One – and Alessa was the parasite. Dahlia never cared for her for anything besides that. Her own foster daughter, and Dahlia had sacrificed her to the Holy One and her god for that, to carry _her_ own daughter. Alessa realized the sacrifice her parents had made to carry her to term, but she had never realized just how deep, how profane and insidious that sacrifice really was. She was a monster, a creature feeding off the energy and spirits of her parents. She felt like crying, and screaming, and shooting herself. She didn’t deserve to live. She never deserved to live. Her entire existence was unnatural, and an unspeakable blight on her parents’ lives. She was worthless.

More images appeared on the screen. It was like she was traveling down a vortex of darkness, swirling around her like an all-encompassing veil. She felt choked, gasping for air, smothered by the weight of the world on her shoulders. Alessa saw a creature, hideous and abhorrent, in the darkness. Horned, with a pronounced rib cage and breasts, burnt skin all over its form, grasping at her from the darkness – Baphomet, Dahlia’s image of the God, she realized. That image dissolved, and behind it was an even more hideous creature, the most hideous she had ever seen, indescribable in its visage. It felt like it was surrounded by a ring of fire, blazing in her mind, and multiple thousands of voices were calling out to her. Alessa felt like screaming; she covered her ears with both hands, in an attempt to block out the noise, even though she knew it would do no good. The creature called out to her, reaching out to her with a hideous clawed limb, whispering dark promises into her ear. The tone sounded like many voices at once, and a deep inhuman voice, all rolled into one. The activity in her mind was growing to an intolerable degree. Alessa screamed, trying to block out the cacophony of noises. The buzzing in the air around her seemed to reach a crescendo, until the atmosphere shattered around her. The glass mirrors shattered in a burst of explosive force, and the reality around her appeared to melt away, as she fell into a black chasm.

Alessa found herself outside, settled on the dirt with her knees folded out at an awkward angle. She looked around and realized the wax house had disappeared, and an entrance to the amusement park was nestled against a wall of large rusted metal. The entire wax museum house had simply disappeared. Alessa sat there in confusion, trying to figure out what the hell had just happened. Where did it all go – the figures, and the building, and the displays, and the bench in the lobby?

What the hell had just taken place? Was it a dream? No, she had definitely been in some place – she could feel the touch of the museum’s temperatures on her skin, and the sheer terror she felt for a moment when she saw the Executioner statues. How could an entire building just disappear into the void? Was it a hallucination? But no…it felt so real. She could almost see the holes in the ground where the building’s foundations were put into place. The underground tunnel where the passageway was flooded was gone, too. So much for that lead.

It was getting difficult to tell what was real anymore. She was losing her mind. Alessa shook her head as she held her forehead in her hand, trying to shake away the cobwebs encircling her brain in haziness. She didn’t know what she was doing anymore. She would go into a building, and it would disappear. She would survive the toughest of horrors, and then wet her jeans from a simple booby trap in a funhouse, with her nerves being shot to hell at this point. Monsters would pop out of the most unexpected places, and then she would never see them again. What the hell was wrong with her? What the hell was wrong with this town?

She supposed she had no choice. She started to make her way back to the amusement park, balancing herself clumsily on shaky legs. She felt like she was almost drunk and delirious from the atmosphere of the experience she had just had, taking deep ragged breaths, even though she had no idea what being intoxicated truly felt like. (And hopefully, she never would. Whether she got married or not, she was not letting anyone convince her to try a round of alcohol. She had enough problems, on her own.) She made her way up to the entrance, which suddenly seemed a lot darker than before; that wasn’t foreboding. She somehow stumbled through the entrance, not even bothering to turn on her flashlight to see clearly.

The sheet metal area hadn’t changed. The bodies she had left behind were gone – it wasn’t an unexpected development, but it did give her a wary pause. How long had she been gone? There was only one path set before her, and it wasn’t one she was going to avoid. Who knew what was lurking there? She certainly didn’t, and yet she had no choice. She was making her way towards the exit when she heard a voice behind her.

“You sure picked a hell of a place to get away to,” a female voice said.

Alessa turned to see who was behind her. The pale girl’s visage looked entirely human, but the silver glint in her eyes told that she was anything but. She had an otherworldly demeanor about her, and she almost appeared to float along the surface. Her blue green sweater looked frayed and her jeans were a simple outfit, but Alessa knew she could change it at will. Her blonde hair looked girlish, and yet there was a deep wisdom in her eyes that made her both look much older and younger at the same time. Alessa pursed her lips.

“Liz.”

The blonde girl stepped up closer to her, with a slight grin on her otherwise solemn face.

“It’s nice to see you haven’t forgotten about me. I thought you might have forgotten about everything,” she muttered, holding herself while looking downward, gazing at the dirty, rusted steel floor.

Alessa scoffed. “Have you been following me this whole time?” she asked curiously. She hadn’t noticed anyone else’s presence all this time, but that didn’t mean anything.

Liz shook her head. “No, I’ve only been trailing you for the past few hours. I’ve been called by what is happening here. I don’t know why, but it’s having a reverberating effect on everything,” the girl quickly explained, before she had a chance to get the wrong impression. Alessa nodded.

_Good_ , she thought. If Liz had been close to her all this time and had been able to interfere, and hadn’t…there would have been some words. Or worse.

“I don’t suppose you can help me out?” Alessa asked, arching an eyebrow at the blonde girl with a pointed look.

“Sorry,” Liz said apologetically. “I know I’ve been through a lot in my life, and I can do a lot, but this place…it scares me,” Liz shuddered to herself, holding her arms around herself. It was obvious that she was visibly disturbed by this setting.

“I see,” Alessa sighed. It was just about what she was expecting – if a place like this was enough to scare the ghostie right here, then it must be really twisted, and it wasn’t fair of her to ask Liz to interfere in a situation that wasn’t her business…but a little help would have been nice. She was beginning to feel overwhelmed. God, she just couldn’t catch a break, could she?

She began to walk away, one slow, tired step at a time. There was no point in staying here then.

“I’ve seen what’s been going on, all the time I’ve been following you. Why don’t you just go back home, and leave Claudia here? The god inside you won’t grow, if you get away from this place,” Liz mentioned to her.

Alessa stopped in her tracks. She turned to look at her.

“Like you? Submitting to the thing that ruined your life, running away from your problems? _Obeying_ him without hesitation?” Alessa asked sharply, disdainfully giving her a judging glance.

“That was different. I was biding my time,” Liz said back, as she defended herself. “I knew that if I tried striking back right away, he would destroy me. I knew I needed to bide my time, until I had the proper chance and allies to strike back. I didn’t give up, I was keeping my head down, trying to stay alive. But this is different. You don’t have to fight Claudia,” Liz stated to her, once again clarifying that option, “In fact, you don’t even have to try to fight this god, or whatever it is, least of all here, on its home turf. You’re throwing your life away,” Liz stated passionately to her.

Alessa remained silent, so Liz continued.

“You still have your aunt waiting for you. Go back home. And take Lisa with you. Get her out of this town, and go back to what’s left of your family. You shouldn’t leave your aunt all alone, while you still have an opportunity to see her. I never got to see my sister again, before this happened to me. She went back to the city, and I never saw her again. I don’t know what I’d say to her, I don’t know if she’s even still alive or not. I’d give anything to see her again, one last time. You still have that chance with your aunt. You can talk with her, say things to her, and be there for each other, protect each other, like I couldn’t. And now you have Lisa, too. It’s not the ideal family, and it doesn’t replace what you’ve lost, but it’s better than nothing. You can run, together, and leave this insanity behind you. And as for that god inside you, I’m sure you’d find a lot better methods to deal with it away from here, outside of this place, than in here, where all its followers want it to be born, and will sabotage everything you do,” Liz pointed out clearly.

“I can’t leave Claudia behind here, she has to pay for what she’s done. No one else will do it,” Alessa said sharply, shaking her head in frustration. “And as for Lisa, I _can’t_ release her from here without the god’s abilities. Don’t you see?! I need the god’s power in order to restore her, and have my one chance at a normal life!” Alessa cried out frustrated. “And the only way that will happen is if I follow this path all the way to the end. I have to stay here. As for my aunt, she’s better off without me,” Alessa said sullenly, glowering darkly at the ground. She knew it was pitiful; she didn’t care. “She never wanted me. All she wanted was her brother, a sibling to relate to. But as to his family she didn’t care about us, or at least she didn’t care about me; I’m sure Julie made an impression,” Alessa laughed darkly, wondering if Liz would get it. Probably not. “I don’t want to burden her. She’s better off not knowing what happened here. Without me. Going on with her life, like I never existed…” she trailed off.

Liz wanted to interject, but if Alessa was in this mood and determined to give into self-loathing, Liz wasn’t going to break her out of it. She stepped closer to Alessa, keeping the other girl in her sight with a wary sort of gaze. Alessa watched her warily, shifting uncertainly while she wondered what she was going to do. Liz placed her hands on her shoulders, pressing down with a comforting sort of weight. Alessa relaxed slightly, at ease for the moment. She cupped Alessa’s face with both her hands, and pressed her forehead against hers. “You’ve done so much for me, helping me learn about my abilities, helping me kill him, the one who tormented all of us,” she said, her voice thick with emotion as she held Alessa’s forehead against her own. She closed her eyes as she leaned into the contact, savoring the human touch that was all too rare for her nowadays.

Alessa leaned into the touch. “You did so much for me,” she said, putting her hands around Liz’s face. “Showing me all there was to the universe, so much more than I imagined, allowing me to use my abilities without the possibility of hurting innocent people, even if it was only for a short time,” Alessa smiled slightly, somewhat self-conscious about that. “You allowed me to help you kill him, helping me save my world, even if nobody else knew it,” Alessa smiled again, laughing slightly at that. “You did so much for me, even if we disagreed sometimes, and I could never repay you,” she said, her voice filled with emotion as each one held the other closely while sharing an almost unspoken mental communication.

“If this is your final journey, Alessa Gillespie, then I wish you well,” Liz said, her voice cracking with the strain as she spoke. She blinked rapidly, as she held back the moisture from spilling on her cheeks. She didn’t know when she had become so attached to this woman, this remarkable young woman, but she was definitely one of the very few friends she had left.

Alessa stepped back, and she could see the same moisture shining in the other girl’s eyes. “Goodbye, Alessa,” she said, swallowing the lump in her throat. This couldn’t be the end, she didn’t even want to contemplate the possibility, and yet something told her that this was definitely the end of their time together. Alessa was determined, and yet she had the most horrible feeling that might not be enough.

“Goodbye, Liz,” Alessa said, voice barely above a whisper, as she fought the trembling in her voice and the blurring of her vision. The young lady across shifted into the form of a silver sphere, and she watched as it turned to trail off into the darkness awaiting it.

Liz headed off with a purpose to her flight pattern. If Alessa couldn’t be dissuaded from her course of action, then she was going to take out as many of those creatures as possible, the minor ones, so that Alessa wouldn’t have to deal with them. It was the least she could do for her friend. She was not going to let her friend down.

Once she had disappeared from the area, Alessa turned and headed towards the dark void awaiting her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Liz and _Phantasm II_ belong to Don Coscarelli, and Universal Studios. ;-)


End file.
